Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2019 annual report

3. Additional data sources

Chapters three and four include commentary and data provided by other bodies involved in the investigation of wildlife crime in Scotland including government departments, agencies and non-Government organisations. The data provides additional detail on incidents or investigative work to complement the data presented in Chapter two and to help fill in gaps where disaggregation of that data is not possible.

Some of these data sources include incidents that have been reported to stakeholders or detected using their specific expertise.

Police Scotland operate to the Scottish Crime Recording Standard which sets criteria for recording an incident as a crime. There is no requirement for other stakeholders to adhere to the Scottish Crime Recording Standard, therefore there may be variability in the way in which crimes are recorded between the various organisations.

It is possible that, if reported to the Police, some of these incidents would not have been recorded as a crime, or would have been recorded as environmental offences or firearms/shotgun offences depending on the nature of the crime.

3.1 SASA

SASA, formerly known as Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture, is a Scottish Government department based in Edinburgh, which as part of its remit, provides several services for wildlife crime investigation.

Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit

Evidence seized by enforcement officers in the course of wildlife crime investigations often contain animal DNA evidence that can be crucial to an investigation – from confirming whether a crime has taken place, to linking a suspect directly to a specific crime scene. The Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit at SASA provides accredited forensic analysis of animal DNA evidence recovered by wildlife crime investigations throughout the UK. Table 8 provides a summary of the range of Scottish casework received in the five financial years ending 30^th March 2019, divided into the UK wildlife crime priorities.

Table 8: Scottish wildlife DNA Forensic Unit cases, 2014-15 to 2018-19

Category	Scottish cases
	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Badger persecution	1	0	0	1	5
Bat persecution	0	0	0	0	0
CITES	0	2	1	1	1
Freshwater pearl mussels	0	0	0	0	0
Poaching and coursing	1	0	3	3	2
Raptor persecution	10	5	4	5	8
Other wildlife crime	0	0	4	1	2
Other (e.g. animal cruelty)	2	0	2	0	3
Total	14	7	14	11	21

Source: SASA

Over the 2018-19 period we saw a rise in the number of submissions relating to badger persecution. Badger cases can lead to the submission of a large number of items for testing – from clothing and tools to swabs taken from dogs or the badger victim. We have had success recovering badger DNA from the wounds of dogs, clothing and also from tools such as spades, forks and nets that are believed to have been used when offences have been committed. These results link the suspect to badger remains and can be very important in prosecutions.

The largest category for submissions continues to be raptor persecution and over this period almost all cases were to identify the meat species from the last meal eaten by a poisoned bird of prey. Our hen harrier DNA database project, funded by PAW Scotland, was launched in early 2019 to collect reference DNA samples from chicks before fledging. Should these birds be victims of persecution, any remains that are recovered in an investigation can be linked back to specific birds.

We are always looking to increase the range of tests we can offer to wildlife crime investigations. Over this period there were a couple of cases where fox DNA profiling– matching a sample from a crime scene to samples taken from a suspect using a DNA profile from a specific fox – could have been very informative. We are collaborating with a student in Belarus, alongside colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, to validate a forensic DNA profiling method for foxes. We hope to make this method available for wildlife crime casework soon.

Chemistry Branch

The Chemistry Branch at SASA investigates suspected animal poisoning incidents, as part of the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. Table 9 provides details of suspected pesticide incidents investigated in Scotland between 2014-15 to 2018-19 and summarises those incidents, categorised as abuse†, that are considered to be wildlife crimes because of the species or pesticide involved. Annually, the branch investigates in the region of 170-230 incidents.

The number of poisoning abuse incidents in 2018-2019 decreased by 2 from 2017-18. While the poisoning of a companion animal is not a wildlife crime, these incidents are included here as the companion animal may have been the accidental victim of an illegal poison intended to target wildlife, while wildlife could also be put at risk by poisons placed to target pets.

Table 9 also includes the numbers of abuse incidents involving suspicious baits or other substances, even if no creature was actually poisoned. Over the five year period, the highest number of recorded abuse incidents involved birds of prey (23) followed by companion animals (17). Bird of prey poisoning incidents are covered further in the Raptor Persecution section of this report.

Table 9: Pesticide incidents in Scotland 2014-15 to 2018-19

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Number of incidents investigated during financial year *	192	215	205	184	175
Number of incidents attributed to pesticides	16	27	20	17	14
Category – Abuse	9	15	10	10	8
% abuse	5	7	5	5	5
No. of abuse incidents involving birds of prey	6	5	3	4	5
No. of abuse incidents involving other birds **	2	0	0	1	0
No. of abuse incidents involving suspicious baits/substances	4	1	3	3	3
No. of abuse incidents involving companion animals	1	2	7	3	3
No. of abuse incidents involving wild mammals	0	0	0	0	0

Source: SASA

* Excludes honeybees and incidents where no analyses were undertaken

** No birds of prey associated with these incidents

Abuse: An investigation into the circumstances of the case concluded that the pesticide(s) involved had been used in breach of their authorisation conditions and that this has been done with the deliberate intent of harming or attempting to harm wildlife or other animals. Where an animal is involved the cause of death has been established as pesticide poisoning.

3.2 SAC Consulting Veterinary Services

SRUC Veterinary Services is a division of Scotland's Rural College (SRUC). While not a government agency, the work of the Veterinary Services team includes post mortem examinations on wild birds (under the Wild Bird Disease Surveillance budget) and on wild mammals (under the Animal Welfare budget). These budgets are funded by Advisory Activity grants-in-aid from the Scottish Government.

Carcase submissions for this wildlife crime summary come, in the main, from Police Scotland. Other substantial contributions come from the RSPB and the SSPCA. Small numbers of carcases come from other sources, such as Scottish Natural Heritage, other conservation or wildlife charities, or members of the public. Where the presence of wildlife crime is suspected following post mortem examination in cases submitted by non-law-enforcement agencies, the police are notified of the outcome to allow investigation to proceed.

In addition to wildlife crime investigation, wild bird carcase submissions in Scotland are used for disease surveillance, notably exotic zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza or West Nile virus. The recent outbreaks of avian influenza in commercial units are an illustration of the need for surveillance for diseases of concern which may be carried by wild birds, particularly given the very long distances involved in migration patterns in some species.

In 2018-19, a total of 195 cases were submitted, of which 53 cases involved mammals and 142 involved birds. These are shown in Table 10 below. As can be seen from the data in Table 10, the percentage of wild bird submissions suspected to be crime related following post-mortem examination is usually lower than the comparable percentage of mammal cases.

There are several factors which may contribute to this difference. Firstly, buzzards tend to predominate the avian submissions by police - these birds are very numerous, and they are also a species known to be persecuted, which may lead to a high rate of report for this particular species by members of the public. Secondly, large bird of prey carcases are noticeable and recognisable for some time after death: the feathers over the carcase can survive for long periods in apparently good condition after death, which can give a superficial appearance of an intact and potentially usable carcase even where there is little to no soft tissue left within. This leads to a higher rate of bird submission in a state of decay beyond analysable viability, leading to a report of "insufficient evidence to ascertain cause of death".

Table 10: Wildlife cases examined by SAC Consulting Veterinary Services under advisory activity funding, 2014-15 to 2018-19

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Total wildlife cases examined as possible wildlife crimes	158	225	172	135*	195
Total mammal cases	41	45	49	31*	53
Total mammal cases identified by postmortem as crime related	26	23	11	13*	21
% of mammal cases identified by post mortem as crime related	63%	51%	22%	42%	40%
Total bird cases	117	180	123	104	142
Total bird cases identified by post mortem as crime related	30	22	13	18	22
% of bird cases identified by post mortem as crime related	26%	12%	11%	17%	15%

Source: SAC Consulting Veterinary Services

It should be noted that the number of carcases submitted as potential wildlife crimes, and then identified as likely to be such, can depend on many factors, including environmental conditions suitable for preservation of carcases, public awareness of issues surrounding wildlife crime, level of scavenging activity, etc., in addition to levels of wildlife crime committed.

Wild mammalian work in the year 2018-2019 has covered a wide range of species including squirrels, hares, otters, badgers, foxes, and deer. With regard to the causes of death or injury, shooting was the most common this year.

The avian cases have covered a range of species, though raptors always tend to predominate in cases submitted as suspected wildlife crimes. Causes of death or injury included shooting, poisoning, potential misuse of traps, and suspected intentional attack by a person or persons.

In cases where the cause of death was recorded as "shooting" either for birds or mammals, a mixture of suspected rifle, shotgun, and air gun were represented. Poison abuse incidents are confirmed by testing at SASA and so the same cases referred to here also appear in Table 9.

3.3 NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage) – General Licence Restrictions and protected species licensing

As part of a package of anti-wildlife crime measures announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, NatureScot announced in 2014 that they would prevent the use of general licences to trap or shoot wild birds on land where there is evidence of wildlife crime against birds. Police Scotland will share information with NatureScot where it may prove to be of assistance in deciding on the use of these restrictions.

The measures were back-dated to 1 January 2014, allowing action to be taken where there is evidence of relevant offences from that date onwards. NatureScot published their framework for implementing restrictions on the use of General Licences in October 2014, which was part of a package of measures aimed at tackling raptor persecution. The rationale behind the restriction process was that the light-touch approach to regulation offered by General Licences (where there is no application process, and no significant registration or reporting requirements) would not be appropriate where there has been a loss of confidence, usually in situations where there has been evidence to show that crimes against wild birds have taken place.

NatureScot meet with Police Scotland and the National Wildlife Crime Unit every three months to review new information on bird crimes in Scotland and to identify any possible cases for future restrictions. Possible cases are reviewed against the criteria set out in the framework document and must be based upon clear evidence of crimes being committed.

Three General Licence restrictions ended in 2018 and a further two were in effect from 2017; one over an area of land in Perthshire, and another to an individual, prohibiting them from using the relevant General Licences for a period of 3 years.

One new General Licence restriction was implemented on an area of land in South Lanarkshire in late 2019. Details of these can be found on the NatureScot website; www.nature.scot

3.4 Police Scotland – firearms licensing

Police Scotland may revoke or refuse the renewal of a shotgun or firearm certificate in circumstances that demonstrate that the holder is no longer deemed to be suitable.

If a firearm certificate holder commits an offence, the Firearms and Explosives Licensing department for the relevant division in which they reside is notified of this and thereafter a report is initiated to examine the person's continued suitability to possess a shotgun or firearm. If a person subsequently has their shotgun or firearm certificate revoked, this would be in terms of the Firearms Act 1968 and not the original offence(s), regardless of the outcome at Court, as they would still have to be assessed on their suitability to possess firearms.

Accordingly revocations and refusals are currently recorded under the Firearms Act 1968 and it is not possible therefore to determine whether wildlife crime offences form part of the suitability consideration process.

3.5 Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) and their Special Investigations Unit (SIU) can lead or support certain wildlife crime investigations in Scotland. Powers are granted to suitably trained staff by Scottish Ministers under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

Scottish SPCA inspectors deal with routine domestic and wildlife welfare cases. The SIU has a slightly different remit dealing with cases which are linked to illegal activities often involving serious and organised crime groups. The SIU deals with both wildlife incidents and incidents involving domestic animals such as dogfighting and the puppy trade. Some of the SIU's work involves incidents where there is both a domestic animal and wildlife element such as badger baiting. The SIU consists of five inspectors and one intelligence manager.

The SIU receives information (and complaints) from two main sources – the Scottish SPCA animal helpline will alert the SIU to any information that may be of interest, and some information is fed directly to the unit from intelligence sources and other agencies through intelligence logs and reports.

The Scottish SPCA's animal helpline received over 156,000 calls between April 2018 and March 2019. Although the number of calls to the animal helpline has decreased by almost 25% the increase in public knowledge of the work of the SIU, brought about by marketing campaigns and media focusing on the results of a number of high profile cases, has resulted in the volume of information being passed to the SIU increasing based on the previous year.

The SIU estimate that between April 2018 and March 2019 they received:

• 639 pieces of information for consideration from the Scottish SPCA helpline
• 586 pieces of information from other sources. Some pieces of information may relate to incidents that after investigation are found to not be the result of crime, may not actually involve wildlife, or are duplicate pieces of information relating to the same incident

Table 11 provides a further breakdown of incidents where the SIU identified a crime had taken place, including those reported to COPFS, listed under the six UK wildlife crime priority areas. These incidents were for cases investigated solely by the SIU.

Table 11: Wildlife incidents identified by SIU as crimes from April 2018 to March 2019

Type of wildlife crime	Pieces of information identified as crime	Reported to COPFS
Badger persecution	21	6
Illegal trade (CITES)	1	0
Raptor Persecution	13	0
Bat Persecution	0	0
Poaching and coursing	10	0
Freshwater pearl mussels	0	0
Other	25	3
TOTAL	70	9

Source: Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The statistic in Table 11 regarding reports submitted to COPFS in relation to badger persecution reflect the number of reports that were submitted following investigations carried out within the year (April 2018 – March 2019) although these reports may have been submitted to the fiscal after 31^st March 2019. The incidents in Table 11 also included ten relating to trapping or snaring offences.

Significant wildlife cases in 2018-19 included an individual acquiring domestic cats via free online advertising sites for the purposes of training his dogs to kill (animal fighting). Mobile phone analysis estimated that this individual was responsible for acquiring and killing 70 domestic cats. They also captured footage of their own dogs baiting and killing badgers. The investigation into this individual resulted in another case being brought against a known associate responsible for causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by not seeking treatment to an injury. The animal also had injuries consistent with badger fighting.

SIU attended a locus following on from a call from a member of the public to Police Scotland, as they suspected an individual was digging a badger sett. Two terriers were inside the sett when the police and SIU attended the locus. A joint police SIU investigation resulted in three dogs being seized, two terriers recovered from within the badger sett, one of which was humanely destroyed due to the severity of injuries it had suffered from being involved in an animal fight (badger). This resulted in a warrant being executed at the individual's home address where a further six dogs were seized due to the presence of injuries consistent with face to face animal fighting, digital forensics recovered numerous images from a mobile phone of the individual involved using dogs for animal fighting. The individual was found guilty of animal fighting and causing unnecessary suffering and awaits sentence.

The SIU report cases directly to COPFS. As a result, any crimes or suspected crimes investigated solely by the Scottish SPCA will not appear in the Police recorded crime statistics shown in Table 1 of this report. If reported for prosecution however, they will be included in the COPFS figures and those cases will have been given a Scottish Criminal Records Office number.

Not all incidents identified as crimes will provide sufficient evidence for a prosecution to be progressed to COPFS. Table 12 below shows a five-year summary of wildlife related investigations led by the SIU, including those reported to COPFS. Table 12 also shows the number of investigations where the SIU supported investigations led by Police Scotland.

Table 12: Wildlife crime investigations dealt with by SIU, 2014-15 to 2018-19

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Incidents investigated solely by SIU	92	96	73	88	112
Number of cases reported to COPFS	6	10	4	0	9
% reported to COPFS	7%	10%	5%	0%	8%
Police Scotland-led investigations assisted by SIU	49	19	42	37	42
Total	141	115	115	125	154

Source: Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

3.6 National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU)

The National Wildlife Crime Unit has a dedicated intelligence function. In the 2018-19 year, the following bespoke intelligence analysis was provided for Scotland:

• Update of the Operation Easter target list – to support and direct proactive targeting across Scotland.
• Quarterly submission of Organised Crime Groups with links to Scotland.
• Quarterly submission of reports to the Acquisitive Crime Threat Group which includes all links to Scottish investigations.
• Bespoke Geographical Information Services (GIS) maps to assist active investigations.
• Provision of two Tactical Assessments to the UK Tasking & Coordination Group for Wildlife Crime, including analysis of all Scottish Wildlife intelligence logs.
• Response to the UK Government in relation to the enforcement of the illegal wildlife trade across the UK.
• Response to the National Crime Agency for their annual threat assessment in relation to trafficking in endangered species across the UK.
• Consultation on the use of illegal wildlife trade seizure data that NWCU supply to the EU-TWIX^[1] network on behalf of all UK police forces.
• Responses to statistical queries from academics/media organisations.
• Responses to Freedom of Information Act requests that relate to Scotland.

In addition, the NWCU's Scottish Investigative Support Officer (SISO) provides advice and 'on the ground' support for wildlife crime investigations. In 2018-2019, the NWCU ISO was involved in casework as well as the strategic development of wildlife crime enforcement and intelligence sharing. The SISO gave advice and assistance to Police Scotland Wildlife Crime Liaison Officers and other organisations on numerous occasions and on a variety of subjects including crimes against raptors, bats, non-native species, freshwater pearl mussels, traps, snares, wildlife disturbance, coastal crime, hare coursing, venison dealing and trading in endangered species (CITES).

Throughout the year, contributions were provided to several operations involving raptor crime and the annual delivery of Operation Easter to target egg thieves and nest disturbance during the bird breeding season. Crime prevention measures to mitigate the risks that persecution posed to the South of Scotland Golden Eagle project on both sides of the border continued and similar measures were taken in partnership with the Cairngorm National Park Authority to safeguard satellite tagged eagles in the Cairngorms. Operations and searches were undertaken around venison dealing and raptor crime.

The SISO gave presentations at several events throughout the year including local and national police training, Sharing Good Practice events, PAW Scotland partners and the UK Wildlife Crime Enforcer's Conference. An on-going element of the role continues to include participation in several PAW Scotland groups (Poaching & Coursing, Media, Freshwater Pearl Mussel and Raptor), Heads up for Harriers project and General Licence restrictions. The SISO also facilitated and presented at the very successful satellite tag awareness training event in February 2019.

Charlie Everitt retired from the SISO role at the end of January 2020 and was succeeded by PC Gavin Ross.

The NWCU works with Police Scotland to produce intelligence products which are based upon analysis of intelligence. Table 13Table 14: Most common priority NWCU intelligence logs below provides a summary of wildlife crime intelligence logs, broken down by relevant keyword. This table has been included to provide a clearer picture of the spread of wildlife crime intelligence dealt with by Police Scotland and the NWCU and reflects the kind of information which is being reported to the Police.

Table 13: Scottish wildlife crime intelligence logs 2018-19

Keyword	Intelligence logs	% of total
Hare	109	24.7%
Deer	93	21.1%
Fish	49	11.1%
Badger	27	6.1%
Raptor/Bird of Prey	15	3.4%
CITES	2	0.5%
FWPM/Pearl Mussel	2	0.5%
Bat	0	0.0%
All 'other' wildlife	144	32.7%
Total	441

Source: Scottish Intelligence Database/NWCU (used with permission of Police Scotland)

It should be noted that an intelligence log is not a detected crime but a tool for Police to use to establish a bigger picture of what is happening in a given area. A single incident may generate a number of pieces of intelligence. Intelligence logs cannot be used to (a) directly compare year on year or (b) comment on long term trends, as they are reviewed on a yearly basis and deleted if grounds for inclusion for policing purposes no longer exist. As a result, the number of intelligence logs for any given year decreases over time.

Table 14 provides a summary of the three most common types of priority intelligence log (i.e. not including the 'Other' category) held in the database for 2014-15 to 2018-19.

Table 14: Most common priority NWCU intelligence logs 2014-15 to 2018-19

Year	Three most common priority intelligence types (as a percentage of the total number of intelligence logs)
2014-15	Fish (18%), raptor/bird of prey (12%) and deer (11%)
2015-16	Fish (21%), hare (17%) and deer (16%)
2016-17	Hare (23%), fish (18%) and deer (17%)
2017-18	Hare (29%), deer (15%) and fish (13%)
2018-19	Hare (25%), deer (21%) and fish (11%)

Source: Scottish Intelligence Database/NWCU (used with permission of Police Scotland)