Senior Kildare Garda spearheading fight against wildlife crime

There are more than a dozen cases before the courts on wildlife poaching in south Kildare, it has emerged.

Supt Martin Walker, who has a strong personal interest in protecting wildlife, told the Mooney Goes Wild programme on RTE Radio that he and his officers take wildlife crimes very seriously.

Supt Walker pointed out that gardai have no powers of arrest under the 1976 Wildlife Act - therefore each offender must be caught red-handed.

The high-ranking officer said gardai in South Kildare work very successfully with the National Parks and Wildlife Service on prosecuting cases such as deer poaching, hare poaching and badger baiting.

Another persistent crime is 'finching' or trapping wild finches and holding them in captivity and breeding them with other birds such as canaries.

Supt Walker that the Garda's Operation Bambi initiative targeting poachers prosecuted one man for shooting over 100 deer stags during a two-month period.

The offender was fined €5,000 and had his firearm worth €3,500 was seized.