from Sunday Herald, 18 July 2010
Animal killers could be getting away with murder across large parts of Scotland because two of the country’s major police forces have no officers dedicated to fighting wildlife crime.
Neither Northern Constabulary, which covers the Highlands and Islands, nor Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary have any full-time wildlife crime officers. This has prompted accusations that the Scottish government is failing to tackle the illegal poisoning, trapping and poaching of wild creatures.
Scotland has seen a huge rise in recorded wildlife crime over the last decade. According to official figures, the total number of wildlife offences reported every year leapt from 140 to 384 between 1999 and 2008.
Landowners and gamekeepers are blamed for deliberately poisoning birds of prey to protect grouse for shooting. Last year saw a record 27 birds of prey killed by pesticides, including 19 buzzards, four red kites and two golden eagles.
Up to March this year, there had already been 22 pesticide poisoning incidents investigated by government scientists, involving buzzards, red kites, owls, dogs and foxes. In the past cats, badgers and otters have also been victims of suspected poisoning, probably from eating laced bait.
“Scotland boasts a spectacular array of wild animals which need greater protection from those who deliberately set out to harm them,” said Elaine Murray, Scottish Labour’s animal welfare spokeswoman.
“It is deeply worrying that two of our largest rural areas do not have at least one dedicated member of staff to deal with these types of crimes which are on the rise.”
The revelation that Dumfries and Galloway and Northern police forces are without any full-time wildlife crime officers came in a parliamentary answer to Ms Murray, the MSP for Dumfries. Scotland’s six other police forces – Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, Central, Tayside, Fife and Grampian – each have just one full-time police or civilian wildlife crime officer.
“It is important that police forces are able to make progress on both the prevention and prosecution of wildlife crime,” she added. “But the fear is that with police forces under increasing financial pressure, wildlife crime will slip further down the agenda.”
Ms Murray was backed by wildlife groups, who feared that crime was going undetected. “Scotland's wildlife crime officers do an excellent and important job but there are too few of them,” said Tony King, head of policy at the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
“All the legislation in the world will make no difference unless it is properly and consistently enforced. There is a compelling moral argument to stamp out wildlife crime and there is a strong business case too.”
Logan Steele, a spokesperson for the Scottish Raptor Study Groups who monitor birds of prey, pointed out that Scottish ministers had invested a great deal of political capital in tackling rogue shooting estates. “It is amazing that the agency at the forefront of fighting such crimes lacks the dedicated expertise and knowledge in two of the most rural areas,” he said.
The Scottish government, however, insisted that wildlife crimes were being properly tackled. “It is erroneous to suggest that without full-time wildlife crime officers these crimes are being overlooked,” said a government spokeswoman.
“Both the Scottish government and Scottish police forces take wildlife crime extremely seriously. All forces in Scotland have arrangements in place to tackle wildlife crime and are active in cracking down on the perpetrators of crimes against our environment.”
Where there are no full-time officers responsible for wildlife crime, there are voluntary coordinators. In 2008 the Scottish government set up the £220,000 Partnership Against Wildlife Crime fund to support the investigation and enforcement of crimes against wild animals for two years.
The penalty for crimes against wildlife is up to twelve months in jail or a £10,000 fine. Crimes involving the purposeful release of non-native species into the wild can incur a maximum two year jail sentence and £40,000 fine.
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