The palgrave international handbook of a 303

300

P. Squires

500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2005

2006

2007

Poisoning

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Shooting, trapping and other destruction

Fig. 2 Combined Reports of Illegal Killing of Birds of Prey in the UK, 2005–2013.
(Data before and after 2008 are not strictly comparable because of changes in the
ways they have been collected)
Source: RSPB, Bird Crime report Series: Annual Reports 2010-2013

At present the maximum fine for offences tried in Magistrates’ Courts
under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is £5,000 and/or up to six
months imprisonment. Despite this, the wildlife lobby acknowledges that
fines of this order, even if they were more consistently imposed, would be
unlikely to act as an effective deterrent. The RSPB argues that penalties
for the killing of birds of prey should be increased to a maximum £50,000
fine and/or up to 12 months in prison in the Magistrates’ Court, with
unlimited fines and/or up to five years imprisonment available in the Crown
Court. Fines alone, however, are seldom regarded as an effective strategy,
especially where there is evidence of landowners apparently paying fines
on behalf of their staff (Nurse 2011, p. 42). However, the RSPB Scotland
report (2009) notes many instances of landowners, upon whose land the
killing occurs, being deducted many tens of thousands of pounds from