Police investigate after animal
rights group films badgers allegedly being caught in snares and shot on the
Moscar estate
Hunt Investigation Team’s film
footage on the Moscar estate, a grouse-shooting estate in the Peak District.
Josh
Halliday North of England
correspondent
Tuesday 11 July
2017 13.29 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 11 July
2017 22.00 BST
Police are investigating
allegations that protected wildlife was killed on
a shooting estate owned by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.
Footage filmed by an animal
rights group allegedly showed badgers caught in snares and shot this year.
The Hunt Investigation Team (HIT)
, which filmed the footage, said it was part of “horrific wildlife persecution”
on the Moscar estate, a grouse shooting estate in the Peak District.
It is a criminal offence to
injure, kill or ill-treat badgers under the Protection
of Badgers Act 1992 in England and Wales.
The Moscar estate, near Bamford
in Derbyshire, is owned by the 11th Duke of Rutland, David Manners, and Emma
Manners, the Duchess of Rutland.
The pair, worth a reported £140m,
also own the 6,000-hectare (15,000-acre) Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, a
stronghold established at the Norman conquest that has appeared in films
including The Da Vinci Code and The Young Victoria.
A spokesman for the Duke and
Duchess of Rutland said in a statement: “They were not aware of any alleged
illegal activities being carried out on the land. They are horrified by these
allegations and will investigate them fully.”
HIT said an estimated 400 wire
snares were set across the estate alongside a variety of traps to catch mammals
and birds.
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