Hen harriers and the inglorious 12th

To Carsington Water yesterday to take part in the fifth Hen Harrier Day.

These days are timed to coincide with the imminent commencement of the grouse shooting season - once called the Glorious 12th but now more accurately The Inglorious 12th.

My letter to Mark Spencer MP today:

Mark
Tomorrow is the first day of the shooting season on grouse moors.
The RSPB and Raptor Persecution Scotland (among other organisations) have comprehensively demonstrated that it is the illegal slaughter of hen harriers by those who manage driven grouse moors that has caused the near extinction of these beautiful creatures as successful breeding birds in England.
The link between locations where intensive driven grouse shooting is practiced and where illegal raptor persecution is found is starkly clear.
The solutions to this illegality include:
a ban on driven grouse shooting;
the introduction of vicarious liability in prosecuting those on whose land this illegality is perpetrated;
and the removal of licences and govt funding from those estates where illegality is demonstrated.
Hen harriers need our urgent support.
I hope I can count on your active advocacy in seeing these actions executed speedily.
Thank you
Rob Carlyle
Constituent

As part of the first Hen Harrier day in 2014 - 'The Sodden 500'

My email to Mark Spencer MP.

We shall prevail.