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'Shame' of bird crime figures
NORTH Yorkshire Police has defended itself after Scarborough and the rest of the county was placed at the top of a league of shame for crimes against birds of prey.
The RSPB's annual Birdcrime report for 2008 has revealed there were 24 incidents against birds of prey across North Yorkshire – compared with 14 incidents in the whole of the rest of Yorkshire.
But PC Mark Rasbeary, one of North Yorkshire Police's wildlife crime officers, said the force took all forms of wildlife crime with "absolute seriousness" – in particular the persecution of birds of prey.
He said: "This type of crime is abhorrent and belongs in the past. Sadly though, as these figures demonstrate, it continues to occur despite the best efforts of the police and our partner agencies such as the national parks and the RSPB."
One of the difficulties facing the force is the size of North Yorkshire, but PC Rasbeary says officers are determined to trace offenders and bring them to justice.
He said: "In terms of policing wildlife crime in North Yorkshire, I firmly believe we are moving forward as an organisation. Within the last month we have taken the lead on wildlife crime and ran the first national course to raise the profile of wildlife crime and promote best practice for effective investigation."
The course was attended by police officers from this area and the rest of the country and North Yorkshire Police now has 13 fully-trained wildlife crime officers.
PC Rasbeary said: "In the coming weeks and months we will also be training over 200 rangers and volunteers from the national parks. This multi-agency approach, together with our own increased capacity and capability, can only benefit the fight against birds of prey persecution and other wildlife crime in North Yorkshire."
Incidents in North Yorkshire included the discovery of a poisoned dead buzzard in April last year, a dead poisoned red kite last May and a buzzard found with leg injuries in November last year that were consistent with illegal trapping.
The report found 1,206 crimes against birds – including peregrine falcons, hen harriers, buzzards and white-tailed eagles – took place last year.
There were 133 reports of poisoning incidents, 36 egg-collecting incidents and 27 reports of illegal disturbance or photography of the rarest birds.
Investigators also examined cases of birds of prey and finches being offered for sale, egg-collecting and illegal trapping.
The total was the second highest ever recorded and means, on average, three protected birds are harmed every day in Britain.
The RSPB is calling for a major shake-up in the way the crimes are treated and maintains that without a thorough review of the way these hard to detect crimes are investigated there is little chance of reducing the number of offences.
Ian West, the RSPB's head of investigations and former Metropolitan Police detective, said: "It is absurd that the Government lists the killing of birds of prey as a wildlife crime priority and yet these crime are not recorded by the Home Office.
"This provides little incentive for police to tackle crimes seen as less important. If I stole a packet of sweets, it would be recorded in the Home Office figures. If I shot a golden eagle, it would not. That cannot be right."
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Weather for Scarborough
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
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