wildlife crime…how the Spanish deal with it.

There has previously been some comment about the difficulties of dealing with wildlife crime on this blog and now on Springwatch; I picked this up from the blog of raptor persecution scotland: 


By raptorpersecutionscotland
Categories: News

 (red kite net)
A farmer in Spain (Cantabria) has been found guilty of laying out poisoned baits and poisoning at least 11 red kites, five dogs, six foxes, a cat, a raven, a buzzard and four vultures.

His sentence? Two years in prison, two years disqualification from farming or any other profession relating to animal husbandry (post release), four years disqualification from hunting (post release), a fine of 90,270 Euros plus an additional fine of 28,500 Euros to be used specifically to monitor red kites in the local area for the next three years (see here).

Now THAT’S a deterrent!

Spain is one of several European countries way ahead of the game when it comes to tackling raptor persecution. Amongst other measures, they have a dedicated dog unit that utilises specialist sniffer dogs trained to detect poison and poisoned baits. These dogs are so good they can even detect the location where a poisoned bait has been laid previously but has since been removed. These dog units are not just deployed to a site of a suspected incident; they are routinely deployed to undertake spot checks wherever they want and whatever time they want. There’s none of this ‘you need landowner permission’, or ‘you need a warrant’.

Remember this the next time you hear the Scottish Government or the UK Government say they are tackling raptor persecution and are treating this crime seriously.