Poaching

I have been busy over the past few weeks trying to help prevent poachers taking deer. I would have done more but as you folks know I had “Man Flu” (That's a cold where the man or is that mouse, thinks he is dyeing). It did come at the wrong time for me as I had just to much to do. In fact I thought that I have not got time to be ill.

While I know that the situation is different in other countries, but I Britain not just anyone can go out hunting. Further, firearms are generally only held by people that are sane, safe and responsible. However, there is a minority of people that are not responsible.

When people think of poaching there is an image of someone who is poor taking the odd animal for the pot. While that was true a century ago, the reality is that poaching is a criminal enterprise and when poachers target an area they can devastate the area. For example there have been incidents where dynamite is used to kill salmon and the poachers will take everything. Further frequently the methods used by the poachers will seriously damage habitats and the rest of the ecology can take years to recover.

So dismiss any romantic notions of the poacher, the modern poachers are criminal gangs. Further they are very violent. Thus when I was out trying to film the deer one night, I was rather surprised when I suddenly had the screen of my camera flooded with light. As I was using IR, I initially though that I had a problem with the camera. Then I spotted that I had the red dot of a laser designator on my chest. I realised that what had happened was that my camera had been flooded with IR light from a night vision rifle sight and that I risked getting shot. All this took a second or two as I jumped out of my cover shouting don't shoot.

I reported the incident to the landowner and they reported the matter to the police. But while poaching is illegal, the reality is that there is very little that can be done. I have long been collecting car and van numbers as a way of helping defeat the poachers. Anyway I was asked if I would join in some of the anti poaching patrols the land owner was organising. Fortunately these appear to have been successful as thus far there is no evidence of the illegal killing of deer.

While doing this was taking me away from the wildlife watching I enjoy, it also discovered some potentially good wildlife watching areas. However, because of the problems with poachers will be an on going one the land owner has removed his permission that allows me to access these areas. He acknowledges that this is extremely unfair, but only by him disallowing anyone on the land can he know that anyone spotted on the land is likely to be up to no good. While I can understand that view it does also mean that I no longer have access to two of the Badger setts.

As you can imagine I am feeling a little miffed by all this. However, I will go off and find other places where I can watch Badgers from and other locations to watch wildlife.

Personally I don't understand what it is with people that they are so selfish and greedy.