Illegal persecution of birds of prey - including poisoning, trapping, and shooting - causes significant welfare harm and continues to suppress raptor populations in parts of the UK.
Raptor persecution causes acute welfare harm through poisoning, trapping injuries, and shooting. Poisoned birds die slowly from neurological effects, hemorrhage, or organ failure depending on the toxin used. Trapped birds suffer injury and fear before being killed. The welfare dimension of persecution is in addition to the conservation harm of population suppression. The systematic nature of persecution on some managed estates - revealed by satellite tag data showing birds disappearing in statistically improbable patterns over specific land parcels - suggests organized rather than opportunistic crime. Cultural and economic drivers sustaining persecution require policy as well as enforcement responses.