These were the scenes many people would have seen outside the Beijing Restaurant at Dunnockshaw until mid afternoon today.
An adult Grey Heron was snagged up and died on telephone wires right above Burnley Rd after it had got tangled up by a approx 1 mtr wire cable which was connected to a gin trap the unfortunate bird must have stepped on. Surely the bird must have been trapped locally as it wouldn`t have got far trailing all that below it. As you can see it had suffered severe damage to the right ankle area of its leg.
The police were informed at c10.30 and a local Burnley bobby turned up then disappeared saying her would get the WLO to come out. Nothing had happened by 1pm so Archie came looking for a bit of help. I them rang the Police again asking specially for the WLO to come out asap as an obvious wildlife crime had occurred and perhaps we could act quickly on a bit of local info as to the potential offender. No response all afternoon. The Heron was removed off the wires by locals, worried about a potential accident occurring because everyone was looking up whilst driving at a bad section of road..
Still not heard anythimg yet as of 10pm tonight, unless Archie knows any differently??
What a horrible horrible way to die. I think circulating these images on social media could create quite a response. Lots of people are oblivious to how animals are treated in the wild and such images might make people think and even inundate the wildlife crime officer I do not use twitter but it can be useful to draw attention to important issues like this. If only a few birders contact them they will just ignore it by the sounds of it. Would this trap be deliberately aimed at catching a Heron or something else?
-- Edited by sarfraz on Tuesday 21st of April 2015 01:45:26 PM
Sad end to a great bird. Whoever laid this trap needs catching and prosecuting, which I appreciate is highly unlikely to happen. These traps are entirely random and wherever the heron stood in this trap there was a chance that a child, a pet dog or whatever could have stood in the trap. It's quite probable that there is a heron's nest missing a parent now.
I can't understand why the police officer who arrived at the scene couldn't do more, after all a crime is a crime. Has anything happened since, with regards to the wildlife officer?
-- Edited by KEVIN LISTER on Tuesday 21st of April 2015 07:08:42 PM
Hi, I have had no response from Lancs police wildlife officer to date after I resent my email.....I know the greater Manchester wildlife officer and he does use the Manchester birding forum,maybe a link to that site may alert a few people just a thought
Terrible to think this can happen. It's quite horrific for anybody who loves nature. The sad thing is that a lot of this will go on it's just unseen.
Craig. I contacted the RSPB about the destruction of habitat by North West water. Right at breeding time and whilst I got a reply it was not one of any "reactive" persuasion. Just a call to tell me they know it goes on and that the surveys that are undertaken are paid for by guess who...the water company. I was left with the thought that it's hard to "police" this kind of action.
I do hope something will be followed up by the police.
__________________
www.wildrossendale.blogspot.co.uk/ Go On...Go Wild!!
Used a bit of Twitter to highlight it and for distribution @birdersagainst and @wildcrimeaware
I guess we could gain from this experience should this be something we come up against again. It seems the evidence somehow needs to be attained with details of those people who saw it and reported it gained.
When a crime is reported to the police a reference number should be attained. this number can then be used to gain updates.
__________________
www.wildrossendale.blogspot.co.uk/ Go On...Go Wild!!
You should se the difference in the number of crimes recorded by the police and the number recorded by the Crime Survey for England and Wales. There is a huge difference between the two figures of course it does include minor crimes which are not often reported to the police because they are considered too trivial or not much can be done about it or the victims do not trust the police. I think the use of social media as in this case can be a good thing. To be fair the police do have their hands tied too due to the cuts. It does not excuse their response though - any body with a heart would feel saddened by these photograph.
