Wildlife Crime in Wiltshire

Wildlife criminals don’t care about the lives they exploit.  They target the most vulnerable for entertainment, for profit, or to protect their profits.  Knowing that law enforcement remains disproportionately weak in this area can make this type of crime an easy target. For that reason, we believe it needs our attention.  So what might wildlife crime look like, and how should you respond?

Wildlife crime only happens where wildlife meets people.  For that reason, it is often hidden away in the countryside or sometimes in people’s homes.  Crimes include raptor persecution on grouse moors, hare coursing on open farmland or disturbing protected bat species for building projects.  Or, you might find the trade of legally protected species online.

I recently stumbled across a wildlife crime when out walking.  Ten minutes of prolonged shooting within the ‘close’ season.  Roughly 200 shots were fired by approximately 5 people.  Then nothing.  The people shooting were standing in a wheat field in front of a small copse of trees.  While they weren’t close enough to decipher faces or what they were shooting, some informed guesses could be made.

To be firing that many shots, the animals being targeted would have to exist in some profusion.  With 47 million pheasants released annually (N. J. Aebischer, 2019), they are the most likely species.  Every close season, a proportion of pheasants survive to breed in the wild.

The ‘close’ season is when it is illegal to shoot animals because they are breeding.  Killing a parent means the death of their offspring.  Creating a ‘close’ season is the government’s nod to the damage shooting has on future generations and animal wellbeing.  The majority of ‘close’ seasons for birds are listed under Schedule 2.1 of the Countryside and Wildlife Act 1981.

With a 10-minute crime window, this made arrest highly improbable and the crime infallible.  By the time I had left the woodlands I was in, found the crime scene and worked out its location for the police, the men, their guns and the tractor that accompanied them were moving on.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can phone 999 if a wildlife crime is happening and 101 for crimes that are about to happen, or have just happened.  The 101 call system is a bit sluggish, but they do have a call-back facility.

Update to follow.