‘If you blame land managers, you are part of the problem’
PEOPLE WHO take to social media to vilify the gamekeeping trade over the killing of birds of prey are “part of the problem”, a specialist wildlife officer has said.
Sergeant Kev Kelly, of North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Taskforce, said only a minority of gamekeepers were suspected of wrongdoing and some of the comments directed towards the trade as a whole were unhelpful.
He said: “People can be very easily swayed by social media so when bad things happen with birds, the finger is always pointed at the gamekeeping community. If you are the person that is going to stand there and blame gamekeepers and land managers, you are part of the problem, you are not part of the solution.”
Sgt Kelly said there were 310 registered gamekeepers in North Yorkshire and he suspected only five per cent “are going to be the problem ones” who were spoiling it for the law-abiding majority.
Despite protection for birds of prey such as red kites and peregrine falcons under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, North Yorkshire has long had the highest rate of illegal killings in England.
Sgt Kelly said: “North Yorkshire is not a good place if you have got feathers and if you are a rare bird.
“The facts and figures spoke for themselves – we were the worst county for raptor persecution and it was sad, really.”
As a result, the police, RSPCA, RSPB and others teamed up to begin a dedicated campaign, Operation Owl, in February.
A key strand of the campaign encourages volunteers to be “the eyes and ears” of law enforcement by spotting and reporting any traps or other suspicious activity.
Sgt Kelly said gamekeepers and land managers could play a key part in this, but the campaign had “come up against a bit of resistance”, with some in the trade getting the impression that the police were out to get them.
He said he wanted to change this perception and hoped more gamekeepers would begin to work with the police to combat wildlife crime.
He said: “For me, a local gamekeeper should be like your postman, your milkman, you say hello to them, you have a chat with them. But it isn’t. It has become insular. Why this happened, I don’t know.”
North Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan said the operation was “really welcome and much needed”.
She said: “It is really sending a very strong message to the rural community that raptor persecution just isn’t on. I think the community understand that now in a way they didn’t before.
“Hopefully, they will start to self-police.”