A Bit Too Mutch!!

Meet the very nice Mr Mutch....

Well you wouldn't want to meet him, and he's not very nice either. In fact George Mutch holds the distinction of being the first gamekeeper in the UK to be jailed for persecuting birds of prey.

Goshawk Arkive 

On Monday Georgie boy received a pitifully short four months in prison after being found guilty on four charges of, illegal use of a trap, illegal killing of a Goshawk, illegal taking of a Goshawk, and illegal taking of a Buzzard. The offences took place in 2012 on a 5,500 acre estate in Scotland where hidden camera footage was obtained and allowed in court as evidence. 

And this is how nice Mutch really is....The footage revealed that Mutch had killed a juvenile Goshawk by removing it from one of the traps and beating it on the head several times with a stick, he could also be seen putting a Buzzard and another Goshawk in sacks and walking off with them in his hands. The video is available of Mutch finishing off the juvenile Goshawk when he removed the bird from the trap by repeatedly beating it's brains in with a stick.

I reckon this guy got off lightly, I find it difficult to refrain from suggesting other sentences he should have been given, but I think a couple of days on the top of a mountain in the Cairngorms locked inside the same trap he set for the birds of prey in Aberdeenshire wouldn't have done him any harm....Well hopefully it would have done him a lot of harm.

On the other hand, a commentator - obviously with a fondness for gamekeepers - suggested a prison sentence was incorrect as....'Mr Mutch already stood to loose a lot by his actions here, his job and his home tied to it, his gun licence, membership of the Scottish Gun Association, and his family will suffer'....Will he really, get real Mr Commentator. 

We need to remember there are many George Mutch's out there to continue what he did, we can't sit back and relax, nor can the birds of prey. So now, what about vicarious liability....The monkey dances whilst the organ grinder plays the tune....who owns Kildrummy Estate?