The Moorland Association said today the latest Birdcrime report published by the RSPB is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public on the scale of bird crime in the UK.
In order to mask the incredible achievements over recent years the RSPB report has simply aggregated 15 years of data. Furthermore the allegations made by the RSPB are not verified by the police.
Andrew Gilruth, chief executive of the Moorland Association, said: “We condemn any incident of crime. What the RSPB have failed to grasp is that even if all its allegations were true, they amount to less than 0.01% of the raptor population. It is to the RSPB’s great shame that it goes to such extraordinary lengths to portray an improving situation as getting worse.”
“Unsurprisingly, this year’s report contains a blatant appeal for financial support to continue the campaign of inciting hostility against those that best protect and maintain some of the rarest habitat on earth – open heather moorland.”
The RSPB report failed to mention that in England:
Hen harrier numbers are at a 200-year high
There were no convictions for the killing of a hen harrier in 2023
Both of the designated areas for hen harriers are at favourable conservation status
Bird of prey numbers across the UK are at a record high
The natural mortality of hen harriers in their first year is 61% loss
Andrew Gilruth said: “In any other walk of life this deliberate manipulation of data would be seen as totally unacceptable. Instead the RSPB should get behind one of the most successful conservation programmes ever undertaken in the UK – the Defra hen harrier action plan – something it still opposes.”
The Moorland Association has raised its concerns with the RSPB.