If Golden Eagles are brought back to England, might some be 'shot, poisoned, trapped or bludgeoned to death'?

                                            

The Forestry England report identifies these eight locations as Potential Recovery Zones for the Golden Eagle. The Cheviots seems to be most favoured because it is already visited by birds from southern Scotland which seem to find this part of England conducive to their needs

THE UK's foremost authority on illegal raptor killing has sounded a cautious note on this week's proposal to restore the Golden Eagle as a breeding species to England.

In her regularly-updated blog, Raptor Persecution UK, Ruth Tingay notes that several of the locations identified by Forestry England as Potential Recovery Zones are subject to "systemic" slaughter of birds of prey, especially at sites where driven grouse shooting is a dominant land-use.

She writes: "Given the population-level effects of illegal persecution in these areas on species such as the Hen Harrier and the Peregrine, it is not difficult to comprehend the challenge of keeping Golden Eagles alive for long enough to establish a home range on these moors."

As much as £1-million is being earmarked by Whitehall for the project to restore Golden Eagles to England - but will this be money well spent?

Back to Ms Tingay who comments : "From my  perspective, I should  have been happier if the Government had also put up funding to establish a national, multi-agency response unit to investigate all offences that fall under the National Wildlife Crime Priorities which includes raptor persecution.

"Continuing to ignore the extent and impact of the issue, as successive Westminster governments have done, will inevitably lead to many of those England-based Golden Eagles being shot, poisoned, trapped or bludgeoned to death - and nobody being held to account."