The report first interviewed Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland’s head of investigations, who suggested that grouse moor managers were behind the poisoning, trapping and shooting of golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, buzzards and hen harriers.
Also interviewed were Dominic Dyer of Care for the Wild and Logan Steele of the Scottish Raptor Study Group, who both lent support to the argument that gamekeepers were to blame for wholesale raptor persecution. Retired gamekeeper Colin Gair claimed that keepers could be pressurised by employers to break the law. “If you’re a young man with a wife and family and living in a tied cottage then you can be influenced,” he said.