Raptors — birds of prey — are among the most persecuted wildlife groups in Europe and elsewhere. Poisoning, trapping, and shooting by gamekeepers, farmers, and pigeon fanciers kills thousands of legally protected raptors annually, causing significant welfare harm to individual animals and population-level effects.
Pole traps (spring traps on posts or perches) are illegal in most countries but still used. Raptors landing on perches are trapped by the leg, often dying of exhaustion, starvation, or self-inflicted injuries over days before being found. Decoy traps (Larsen traps baited with live decoy birds) are legal for corvids but sometimes misused for raptors — trapped birds experience days of stress in confined conditions before release or death.
Recovery programs have demonstrated that removing persecution pressure rapidly restores raptor populations. Red kites — reintroduced to the UK from Wales beginning 1989 — now number 4,000+ pairs where previously extinct. Each population recovery represents thousands of individual animals living full lives rather than being killed illegally. Enforcement of raptor protection legislation is the primary welfare intervention needed.