Crimes against birds of prey can now be reported to the RSPB using a new confidential phone line.
The RSPB will support the hotline with a press advert, calling on gamekeepers to report the bad apples who think it is acceptable to kill birds of prey and who threaten the good name of their profession.
The launch was announced outside Telford Magistrates’ Court where gamekeeper Roger Venton yesterday (Wednesday, December 3) pleaded guilty to illegally targeting wildlife on the Shropshire shooting estate where he worked.
Venton, 33, admitted using a pole trap and permitting his under keeper, Kyle Burden, to use an illegal cage trap.
Sentencing was adjourned until January 2, with the district judge refusing to rule out a prison sentence.
In September 2008, Burden received a six month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to shooting buzzards and clubbing to death badgers at the Kempton Estate in Aston on Clun.
Both men were caught after fellow gamekeepers, horrified by the slaughter they witnessed, alerted the RSPB.
The RSPB hopes its new phone line will encourage more people with knowledge of such crimes to come forward.
Mark Thomas, RSPB Investigations Officer, said: “The people who commit these crimes, or who pressure others to commit them, are not only breaking the law, they are dragging the good name of gamekeeping through the mud.
“The witnesses in this case knew that and they did the right thing, but they must have found it very hard. This phone line will offer people in a similar position a way to report what they have seen.
“They will be able to pick up the phone and know they will be listened to in confidence and that something will be done.”
HOTLINE
People can call the RSPB’s confidential hotline on 0845 466 3636. Calls to this number are not recorded.