Good news! There will not be a licensed cull of ravens on the grouse moors of Strathbraan this year!

Since the voluntary withdrawal of the Strathbraan raven cull licence in July 2018, we've been aware of the potential for a revised application for the 2019 breeding season.

A series of recentl Freedom of Information requests has now revealed that a revised licence application to cull ravens in Strathbraan was submitted to SNH in March 2019, although we have yet to see the details of this application.

Yesterday SNH told us that it had refused to issue the licence for 2019 as the application didn't meet the standards laid out by SNH's Scientific Advisory Committee.

This is very good news!

SNH intends to release a series of documents relating to this licence application on 10 May 2019. We'll be paying close attention to the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee as these will help us build a legal challenge if a further licence application is submitted this year (e.g. to kill ravens in the winter, which has been suggested as a possibility).

For further information about the latest licence application details please visit the RPUK blog here

We still have a significant amount of funds in our Crowdjustice account (thank you all!) and this money is being put to good use as we continue to seek legal opinion on this case. Thank you to our legal team (Sindi Mules and Aidan O'Neill QC) for continued interest, support and advice this year. 

Yesterday we instructed our legal team to withdraw our current application for judicial review of the Strathbraan raven cull licence.

The reasons for this are as follows:

Our initial objectives for applying for judicial review were to (a) establish that the process and scientific justification for the SNH raven cull licence (i.e. 'just to see what happens') was flawed and should not be permitted to be used as the basis for this or for any future cull licences for ravens or other protected species; and (b) to have the 2018 raven cull licence stopped.

We have succeeded in achieving both objectives. 

At the end of July, SNH published a review conducted by its own Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) which utterly condemned the scientific justificiation and design of the 'study', calling it "completely inadequate", "seriously flawed" and "will fail to provide any meaningful scientific evidence".

As a result of this damning review, SNH also announced that the licence holder (Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders, SCCW) had agreed to 'voluntarily suspend' the raven cull from the end of July until the licence expires on 31 December 2018, having killed 39 of its licensed quota of 69 ravens. On a superficial level this appeared, initially, to be a satisfactory response, but we had concerns that the 'voluntary suspension' was not legally binding and so the SCCW could continue to kill ravens at any time for the remaining duration of the licence.

However, we are now satisfied that the SCCW has made an undertaking to voluntarily suspend the cull, which in effect means the licence will not be used again before it expires on 31 December 2018. According to our lawyers, the word 'undertaking' has far more legal significance than the word 'agreed', which means if the SCCW does decide to continue killing ravens under the terms of the current (flawed) licence, even though it has undertaken not to, this would open an opportunity for us to launch a further legal challenge, this time against the SCCW rather than against SNH.

As we have successfully achieved both our objectives, our application for judicial review becomes just an academic exercise with no tangible benefits, as the SAC has already declared the scientific justification as being "completely inadequate" and SNH will not be issuing any further licences without substantial review, and an undertaking has been made by SCCW not to kill any more ravens for the duration of the licence. If we were to proceed with our application for judicial review on this academic basis alone, there is a risk the judge would consider our case unfavourably and dismiss it, leaving us exposed to a demand for legal costs from SNH.

We feel we have a responsibility to use our crowdfunded donations wisely and pursuing an academic exercise just to prove a point would not be a prudent use of these funds, nor a good use of court time. On balance, we would have more to lose than gain. Instead, we intend to hold the remaining funds as a war chest so that if/when SNH decides to issue a further licence permitting the killing of ravens in Strathbraan, we will be in a strong position to react quickly and launch another legal challenge if it is deemed necessary. Our funds are currently being professionally audited and we have a significant amount remaining, which will be held by our lawyers in a ring-fenced account.

Our fight to get #Justice4Ravens is not over. SNH indicated that the 2018 raven cull licence was part of a proposed five-year 'study' at Strathbraan and although SNH has admitted it has to review and amend its "seriously flawed" study design, we are well aware that future licences are quite likely, if not in time for 2019 then probably for 2020. We consider the withdrawal of our application for judicial review as a temporary measure and will not hesitate to apply for a further judicial review if SNH's incompetence continues.

We'd like to record our sincere thanks to our legal team, Sindi Mules (Balfour & Manson) and Aidan O'Neill QC (Matrix Chambers) for their hard work and commitment to our case. They have been fantastic to work with and we look forward to seeking their advice again as SNH's future raven cull plans become clearer.

We'd also like to thank you, our donors, whose generous support allowed us to launch this legal challenge. It's a cliche but our success in this case would not have been possible without your trust and support (and of course, your donations!). Thank you all.

We will continue to keep you informed of any new developments.

Ruth Tingay & Logan Steele, on behalf of Scottish Raptor Study Group

Last week SNH was forced to admit it's 2018 Strathbraan raven cull licence was "completely inadequate", "seriously flawed", and "will fail to provide any meaningful scientific evidence", following a damning review by its own Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

You can read the SAC report here.

The SAC's assessment came as no surprise to those of us who have stated all along that the raven cull had no scientific justification whatsoever. SNH should have sought the SAC's advice long before the licence was ever granted instead of waiting until the cull had already begun.

As a result of the SAC's findings, the licence has been 'voluntarily suspended' and SNH is working to make changes before any further licences are granted. This is a significant victory for us all, as the raven cull has been stopped, albeit temporarily. However, the fact that SNH has not revoked the licence, despite such severe criticism of its unscientific basis, is a matter of concern.

The Scottish Raptor Study Group will be meeting with its legal team tomorrow (Weds 8th August) to discuss how this news affects our application for judicial review. We have several options on the table and these need careful consideration and guidance from our legal experts.

We'll report back soon.

Thanks everyone for helping us get this far. It's not over yet!

Ruth Tingay & Logan Steele (SRSG)

Message from Logan Steele & Ruth Tingay (SRSG):

Our crowdfunder closed this morning and smashed our stretch target of £25k!

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign and made it such a success!

Our legal team has been working hard behind the scenes building our case and we're delighted to announce that yesterday a petition/application for judicial review was lodged at the Court of Session.

This is stage one of proceedings and we now await the judge's decision on whether we have a strong enough case to proceed to a full hearing (stage two).

We'll keep you posted.

Thank you all again, this legal challenge would not have been possible without your support.

A quick message from Logan Steele of the SRSG:

Many thanks to EVERYONE who has helped us to achieve our first £10k target on Day One of the campaign! 

You have all been fantastic.

Tomorrow we appoint the QC.

Please keep sharing as we now try to reach our stretch target of £25k.

We will keep you posted as things progress.

Best, Logan