Bruce Kendrick travels down through the Western Isles, visiting Lewis, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Barra, Vatersay plus some of the smaller islands. Indeed, for good measure, he throws in visits to St Kilda. The author has intimate knowledge of these islands in the Atlantic as he has been a regular visitor for over 50 years. Since I have also visited most of these islands (regrettably not St Kilda) I could see that this was going to be a very interesting read. My initial thoughts were that the nature aspect would be very interesting but I wasn’t quite so sure about the ..read more

I have just read of a conviction by Hampshire Police of five men involved in hare coursing. The conviction was under new legislation, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which has created the new offences in England and Wales of trespass with intent to search for or to pursue hares with dogs, and being equipped for searching for or pursuing hares with dogs. While in Scotland the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 was far from easy to enforce due to its complexity, at least it had a sensible and workable definition of the term ‘hunt,’ which is to ‘search for or course ..read more

The author, Hans Breuer, is a committed enthusiast in carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. His love of these plants is such that he and his family moved from their home in Taiwan to Borneo where there is an incredible diversity of these plants. Hans, often along with his family, has many exciting adventures seeking out the natural wonders in Borneo’s forests but is aware of the serious risks to wildlife through logging and the capture of many animal species either for eating or for the pet trade. He specifically writes of the threat to pangolins. The author has an encounter with an orang utan ..read more

For reasons similar to those put forward by Police Scotland I have never been an advocate of giving more powers to the SSPCA to investigate wildlife crime. Their staff already have powers that relate to animals being cruelly treated or to live injured or trapped animals but their powers stop short of dealing with suspected offences when the victim is already dead. If powers similar to those of Police Scotland were extended to SSPCA staff there would be confusion for the public in relation to whether to report a suspected wildlife crime to the police or to the SSPCA; there could be interferenc ..read more

I’ve put this post on my blog twice before but I think, in view of the astonishing comments by two board members of the Yorkshire Dale National Park Authority, as published in the latest blog of Raptor Persecution UK   https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2022/12/17/yorkshire-dales-national-park-not-natural-country-for-hen-harriers-red-kites-according-to-national-park-authority-board-member/ it’s worth another airing. (By the way if anyone can tell me how to minimise these long links I’d be obliged) Photo courtesy of the former Strathclyde Police  In 2013, while visiting a local farm ..read more

I’ll start off this review as I’ll end it: I loved this book. As the title suggests, the author looks in depth at wildlife and habitat during the four seasons of the year. The format is almost in the manner of a diary, the author visiting farmland, woodland, moor, coastline and his garden, on his own or in the company of others, throughout the course of a year. The detail given of what he sees demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna in his home area, which is Devon. I particularly enjoyed the way in which he brought to life many of the species he watched on his sojourns. H ..read more

I see from the Raptor Persecution UK blog that after their FOI request, Police Scotland have admitted that as well as the three dead buzzard found in a bag on Millden Estate during a police/SSPCA search, a further five dead buzzards and a sparrowhawk were found in a bag at a spot believed to be just off the estate and beside the River North Esk. All the birds had been shot. Alan Stewart with Alma the poisoned golden eagle found on Millden Estate Police made enquiries into the caches of dead birds and reported a 28-year-old-man – assumed to be a gamekeeper from the estate – for prosecution. The ..read more

One of the early chapters from my novel Calls from the Wild to give a flavour of the content.  PC Bob McKay, wildlife crime liaison officer for the Tayside Division of Police Scotland, visits a gamekeeper who is keen to report the activities of the new estate owner of Loch Garr Estate and his head gamekeeper, who are causing serious problems for his brother, a gamekeeper on that estate. Chapter 2 It was a lovely sunny morning when Bob headed up the A9 to Highland Perthshire to visit Mike Curtis on Inversnood Estate. He loved this landscape, the forested and craggy slopes as he passed Dun ..read more

So Rhys Owen Davies, a former gamekeeper at the infamous Millden Estate in Glenesk, has been jailed for 210 days, a well-deserved sentence. He pled guilty at Forfar Sheriff Court to, while employed at the estate, keeping five dogs for animal fighting from 24 April 2018 to 8 October 2019.  An important part of the penalty was his disqualification from keeping dogs for 15 years. The evidence was uncovered after a raid by SSPCA and police at his home. He also pled guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to two dogs by failing to provide veterinary treatment and to breaching the conditio ..read more

I saw a tweet from Weymouth Animal Rights which appeared to show a live fox that had been dug or pulled from a den being placed by several men into a box on a quad bike. A terrier had been in the den for the purpose of bolting the fox and apparently came out of the den shortly after the fox was taken. There were lots of claims on Twitter that this activity was illegal and that the police were failing to take action against those involved as they allegedly said there was not sufficient evidence for a prosecution. I’m in absolutely no doubt, as most folks will be, that the fox was carted off by ..read more