Wildlife Crimes
Overview
Wildlife crimes
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are those which involve any type of animal cruelty or the buying, selling, disturbing and harming of wild plants and animals which are protected by law.
Specific wildlife crimes include:
- Causing damage to nests, ponds, bat roosts or nature reserves
- Killing, taking from the wild, poisoning or poaching specieswhich are endangered or legally protected
- Taking the eggs, skins or feathers of protected animals and removing protected plants.
What happens when a wildlife crime is committed
- The crimes reduce the size of particular specie populations, threatening rare plant and animal species by pushing them closer to extinction.
- Wildlife crimes cause undeserved pain and suffering to animals whilst often being linked to other serious and large-scale crimes.
Wildlife crimes are a punishable offence. Currently fines are:
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£5,000 for destroying a bat roost
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£2,500 for interfering with a badger set
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£2,800 for illegally selling protected fish
Please read our FAQs for related questions about wildlife crimes and biodiversity in general.
