Red kite found killed in the North Pennines

29 June 2023

A red kite has been found killed near Stanhope in Weardale in the North Pennines AONB. Autopsy results show that it had been shot at some point in its life, but that the cause of death was poisoning. Director of the North Pennines AONB Partnership, Chris Woodley-Stewart, reacts to this news:

Here we are again. Another bird of prey, a red kite, has been found dead near Stanhope Burn, in Weardale, and the autopsy results prove that it was both shot at some point and later poisoned. I’m sick of saying that ‘I can’t believe this has happened again’. But actually, I can believe it, and after all this time, that’s much worse.

It may be that someone locally has illegally killed this magnificent bird, or it may have managed to have struggled to the site of its death having been brutally abused somewhere else. That matters in terms of a potential evidence trail (and that really is important) but, wherever the poison was left, or the gun fired, it tells us what we already know – that in a misguided attempt to protect their interests, or to satisfy some ingrained hatred of anything with a hooked beak and talons, some people will break the law and display their cruelty in this way.

This bird didn’t shoot itself and poison itself, just to make sure; someone ended its life. And that means at least one, probably two crimes have been committed. As I understand it, the investigation of crime starts with ‘means, motive and opportunity’. Who has access to firearms and poisons? Who is unable to share their space with raptors? Who is most often in the places they can be found, but well away from the eyes of the public? Means, motive, opportunity. Obviously only a tiny fraction of those with means, motive and opportunity will commit crimes like this (or any other). But each illegal killing is one too many, and it doesn’t take many law-breakers for this criminality to have a population-level impact on some species.

We’re appropriately circumspect when a tagged raptor simply goes ‘missing’ – until we’re sure what happened to it. But in this case there’s no room for doubt about what happened, even though the ‘who did it’ is open to question. I’m on Defra’s Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group, one of a number of such groups established to tackle similar issues in the nature and environment arena. There’s genuine good intention from everyone involved, I think, and the police input is serious, high-level and committed; but nothing seems to be changing.

Are we keeping doing what we’ve always done and getting the same (dreadful) results? Can we do something different? Surely we need to at this point. There are progressive estates and gamekeepers; how do we harness their power and influence, and that of land managers of all kinds? Is it time for greater regulation? Is the sentencing policy too lenient when we finally get a conviction? How do we remove the pressure on some people that makes them step over the line into breaking the law? Are we getting enough of the good news stories (there are some) out there?

Does this actually matter? I think it does, firstly because it’s a crime, and we don’t have a ‘pick and choose legal system’ where we say some crimes don’t matter. Secondly, ecologically, the role of top predators is important in maintaining healthy ecosystems. But we also often overlook the simple beauty of these creatures, and how they can make us feel when we see and hear them; and that alone matters, because they are emblematic of some of our most dramatic landscapes.

So we’re now echoing calls from Durham Police and the RSPB for anyone who may have information about this or other wildlife crimes to come forward. Please share what you know and help rid the country of this depressingly widespread crime that is a bloodstain on our landscape.

Do I sound angry? If you’re not angry too, you haven’t been paying attention.