A report by a coalition of charities reveals that only a tiny fraction of reported wildlife crimes lead to a prosecution and that convictions for offences like badger baiting, hare coursing, illegal trapping, unlawful trade in endangered species and illegal hunting are currently at an all time low. Wildlife and Countryside Link have made a list of seven key recommendations to the UK government which, they say, will help deter crimes against British wildlife.
The report makes clear that police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service rarely treat harm done to wildlife as a priority. At Protect the Wild, we think that wildlife crime should never be treated as minor. We need legislative changes to ensure that animals get the legal protections they deserve.
Wildlife and Countryside Link (or Link, for short) boasts that it is England’s largest coalition of environmental and wildlife organisations. Its members include big NGOs and campaigning organisations like Greenpeace, Wild Justice, WWF and Friends of the Earth, to name just a few.
The report uses figures and information from local police forces, NGOs and the National Wildlife Crime Unit to estimate the number of reported crimes against wildlife and the amount of successful prosecutions. The data shows that the total number of reported incidents has stayed roughly the same since 2017, hovering at around or about the 5000 mark, but that the number of successful prosecutions has dropped markedly, with convictions in 2024 representing just 2.6% of the total (excluding convictions related to fisheries).
2024 – hunting convictions are the lowest since 2017
It’s important to note that the figures do not include the number of wildlife crimes reported during 2024 in relation to hunting (as hunting reports come in according to hunting ‘season’ as opposed to calendar year). The report does include the number of hunting convictions though and, shockingly, the number of successful prosecutions recorded in 2024 was just 14, the lowest amount recorded since 2017.
Link demands that the government’s “commitment” to a consultation on a new ban on hunting should be delivered quickly “with the closing of all loopholes exploited by hunts” and “accompanied by further action to better enforce the Hunting Act and to provide sanctions capable of genuinely deterring offenders.”
13.5% of the total reported incidents related to badgers. These included badger baiting, the digging out of badger setts or people setting dogs on badgers. As Protect the Wild has previously reported, the dogs used in these attacks can sustain life-threatening injuries and are often not given the necessary medical care.
Link underlines that the harm being done to wildlife undermines ecosystems. For example, the coalition makes the point that badgers play an important role in protecting plant diversity and dispersing seeds around their setts. Persecuting badgers is, thus a threat to ecosystem resilience as well as to badgers themselves.
Link also reported that there was a “record low” level of reported crimes against birds of prey since 2017. However, this low rate of reporting is unlikely to reflect a true decrease in the number of incidents of cruelty. Link explains that protected species like Peregrines are often killed by the owners of gamebird farms because of the perception that they pose a threat to farmed birds. According to Link:
“Despite overwhelming evidence, prosecutions [relating to crimes against birds of prey] remain rare due to the remote nature of these crimes and the high burden of proof required under criminal law.”
‘The criminal justice system is failing wildlife’
The report’s authors pointed out that the figures listed were “likely to be just the tip of the iceberg”. They say “The criminal justice system is failing wildlife”, and that their report:
“identified a record low level of convictions despite reports of wildlife crime incidents remaining stubbornly high. The number of recorded wildlife crime offences is likely to be a huge under representation of the true level of criminal activity across England and Wales. In part this is due to the isolated locations that they take place in and the nature of criminal activity, but a significant issue lies in the way that wildlife crimes are recorded.”
The coalition pointed out that wildlife crimes aren’t currently deemed ‘reportable’ by the Home Office and are thus not included in national crime statistics. The report’s authors highlight that this is a factor in these offences being “under-prioritised”.
Link underlines the seriousness of these offences:
“Crimes against animals are often vicious, immensely cruel and inhumane. On the orders of criminals for ‘sport’ or ‘entertainment’, characteristic animals of the countryside like the badger or hare are torn from their home or pursued by dogs and then face a violent, agonising and needless death.”
Wildlife crime linked to firearms offences
Link pointed out that these wildlife crimes are often linked to other types of crime, including firearms offences:
“Recent [National Wildlife Crime Unit] NWCU analysis has documented the strong link between offenders of wildlife crimes and other violent and serious crimes, including illegal firearm use, money laundering, and domestic violence. Despite the magnitude of these offences, and the connection to other serious offences, many criminals are getting away with committing wildlife crimes. Limited funding and training for police forces and for the Crown Prosecution Service, limited data of offences, gaps in sentencing guidelines for wildlife crimes and disparities in the legislation are all contributing factors to this.”
Development projects are implicated in a quarter of wildlife crimes
The Coalition’s report highlights the fact that 25% of reported crimes related to illegal harm done to wildlife occur in the course of development projects. They wrote:
“almost a quarter (1,643, 23%) of reports of illegal activity involved habitat damage or interference. Habitat damage poses significant threats to the welfare of wild animals, specifically by preventing safe movement across a landscape (loss of ecological connectivity), restricting normal behaviours such as foraging or mating, or denying animals’ access to basic needs such as food, water, and shelter, with subsequent impacts including stress, injury, pain, distress, and death.”
Link documented several examples from 2024 of companies and private developers going ahead with construction projects, despite evidence that bat populations would be harmed. One company was ordered to pay over £2500 in fines and costs after illegally demolishing a building that was home to a roost of Pipistrelle bats.
The Labour government’s proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill will enable corporations to push forward ecologically damaging projects more easily meaning that – if the Bill is passes – this sort of harm to British wildlife will only get worse.
Seven recommendations
The coalition is calling on the government to make seven key legislative changes that they say will ensure that wildlife crime is taken seriously in future. These changes include more serious sentencing options for those convicted of wildlife crimes, making the most severe wildlife offences reportable (notifiable) so that they will be recorded in national statistics by the Home Office, local authorities carrying out more inspections and enforcement actions to deal with wildlife harm in the course of development projects, the provision of more animal welfare and wildlife crime awareness training for police forces, more funding for the National Wildlife Crime Enforcement Unit a ban on snares and the tightening up the loopholes in the Hunting Act.
‘Organised cruelty’
Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall pointed out that although wildlife crime is often seen as less important than other types of harm it is, in fact, ‘organised cruelty’. He commented:
““
At Protect the Wild we would like to see the harm committed against wildlife treated with the urgency it deserves and with the same gravity as when harm is done to humans. We agree with Link that when damage is done to the natural world it inevitably damages human communities too. That’s why we are calling on the government to impose a real ban on the hunting of mammals.
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Use Protect the Wild’s automated tool to email your MP and demand a proper ban on hunting.
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Read the Wildlife and Countryside Link report here.
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Learn more about hare coursing and badger baiting, trapping and the campaigns to stop them.
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Find out more about raptor persecution here.
Badger image by Caroline Legg on Flickr. Hare coursing and badger baiting images via screenshots – You Tube/Daily Motion. Picture of bat hanging upside down from a tree by Amir Miqdadi on Unsplash.