“Dressed in camouflage and peering around to watch for onlookers, these pictures reveal the moment a gamekeeper was caught in the act setting up illegal traps to snare wild birds on a sprawling country estate. Ryan Waite was captured by RSPB investigators re-setting a spring-loaded pole trap on top of a 6ft tree stump at the shooting estate in Yorkshire.

The 26-year-old fined £250 after the bird charity took him to court, claiming he intended to target birds of prey on the Swinton Estate, near Wensleydale.

But the gamekeeper, of Healey, North Yorkshire, who maintained the 10,000-acre grouse moor, said he was only trying to trap grey squirrels in the jaws of the metal devices.

Harrogate Magistrates Court heard officials from the League Against Cruel Sports visited the estate on May 31, last year and found the illegal trap.

The RSPB were alerted and visited two days later. The trap was found chained to a wire with the safety cap off and covert cameras were set up in the area.”

Author: Lizzie Parry

Source: Mail Online

To read the full article, click HERE.

To read the RSPB press release, click HERE.