A few of our regular blog followers have previously commented about the apparent lack of interest in illegal raptor persecution by many mainstream journalists. Well here’s one (of several) bucking the trend – Mark Macaskill from the Sunday Times (Scotland), who has, over the years, written quite a few articles on the subject, including this one published today on the absurdity of Natural England seeing nothing wrong in the government’s policy of issuing licences for controlling protected species to people who might previously have been convicted of wildlife crime.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I see from his article “..despite evidence that they are not a threat to pheasant chicks..”Buzzards will of course take the odd pheasant chick and even adults – but the whole point of legal protection is to prevent knee jerk killing of predators..society has decided a long time ago that buzzards are more important to us all than a few pheasant chicks. We should never argue these situations from what can look to gamekeepers, as a naive perspective – then you just get told you don’t know what you are talking about.
The way in which pheasants are reared in the UK often encourages predators – by placing large numbers in small open pens..or just in a superabundance of prey. With those methods you are simply asking for trouble. Smaller numbers of birds released will of course equal smaller profits to the estate/shoot – as always this whole thing is about money, with the added reinforcing factor of a tradition of unrestrained illegal killing.
But it is good to see that at least one journalist is taking this seriously..
And it’s not just NE but MPs as well. Mine has replied confirming that any “problem” bird should be dealt with under license if the siutaion fits including reported losses to sporting interests. This sets a dangerous precedent does it not for any protected species who someone judges as being a “problem”.