Stray cockerels cared for by volunteers on moors near Ripon have gone missing amid fears they have been killed and fed to dogs or ferrets.

Animal lover John Richmond, a former mayor of Ripon, and eight volunteers set up a daily rota to tend to up to 30 abandoned birds.

But last week only 15 could be found at ‘Cockerel Corner’ between Kirkby Malzeard and Dallowgill, where they normally gather to be fed.

Following a thorough search of the moorland undergrowth, one of the birds was found dead with a pellet hole in its chest.

Mr Richmond told the Stray Ferret:

“I believe that the birds, who have become very tame and trusting, came out expecting to be fed and half of them were shot by a person or persons with air rifles and the carcasses taken off in a vehicle to be fed to dogs or ferrets. I have reported this to North Yorkshire Police.

“In the meantime the team of volunteers, who come from Harrogate, Ilkley, Knaresborough and Masham are determined to keep feeding the remaining hungry cockerels, though it is proving difficult to get the birds to come out of the undergrowth at feeding time.

“The birds clearly remain traumatised by what they have experienced and we are at a complete loss to understand why anybody would do this to harmless creatures.”

The former mayor, who was awarded the British Empire Medal last year for services to the community, took over feeding the cockerels when his cousin Ken Ellis became too poorly to continue the daily task.

Mr Ellis died in July and since then a growing number of volunteers have been assisting Mr Richmond in looking after the birds.

Mr Richmond, who is 86, added:

“I am still looking for more volunteers who can help out with looking after the cockerels and if they want to know more, they can contact me on 01765 607 096.”

Controlled burning of heather has started on moors in the north of the Harrogate district.

Moorland managers carry out burning between October 1 and April 15 to remove old growth and promote the development of new heather and grass shoots in spring, which helps grouse and other species thrive.

It is carried out with the agreement of Natural England, the licensing body.

Smoke drifted over areas such as Pateley Bridge and Lofthouse over the weekend as burning took place.

The North Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, which represents moorland managers, said in a statement that ground nesting birds have left the moors by October and the heather has faded.

“If the conditions are right and the wind is not too strong then the experienced keepers will recognise these opportunities and use their expertise to carry out very controlled rotational burns where the old heather has grown long and rank.”

It added that long, old heather has little nutritional value for grazing animals or grouse and loses its capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

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Burning in winter also reduces the risk of summer wildfires, it added:

“Heather is a dwarf shrub that will become woody with time and if left unchecked will accumulate large amounts of combustible material that dries in summer and poses a huge wildfire risk. Summer wildfires are devastating events both financially and environmentally.

“They pose serious risk to people and property and can release millions of tons of locked in carbon that has taken millennia to accumulate.”

Calls for a ban

But the Yorkshire-based campaign group Wild Moors has called for burning to be banned.

It claims that the practice actually damages peatland formation and is harmful to the environment.

Luke Steele, executive director of Wild Moors, said:

“At COP26 Britain has a prime opportunity to be a trailblazer in managing land for nature as a solution to climate change and biodiversity loss.

“But how can we be a role model for other nations to follow when we still allow our carbon-rich peatlands to be torched to benefit grouse shooting?”

Plans to replace the fire-damaged Bilsdale transmitter and restore TV and radio signals for large swathes of the Harrogate district are being held up by the transmitter’s location within a rare heather moorland.

The blackout of Freeview TV channels and loss of radio signals has affected thousands of homes, particularly in the northern part of the district, after a major fire on August 10 put the 1,030 ft mast out of action.

Patience is wearing thin among many people, who have now been affected for three weeks.

Stray Ferret follower Lynette Cooper, who lives in central Harrogate, summed up the mood when she said:

“I’m totally fed up. For weeks now, I haven’t been able to see any of my favourite programmes.

“It’s the same for my daughter Helen at her home in Pickering and a friend told me that some elderly people at a Harrogate nursing home she goes to, just sit there with nothing to watch.”

The Bilsdale transmitter, built on the moors near Helmsley in 1969, is one of the most powerful transmitters in the UK, serving hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners from North Yorkshire to the North East and beyond.

The Bilsdale mast’s moorland location.

In a statement on August 13, transmitter operator Arqiva said:

“Our plan involves the erection of an 80m temporary mast at Bilsdale and we have been surveying the site to identify the best alternative locations within the restrictions we have.

“Included in this is the fact that Bilsdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, meaning we have to seek agreement to place any additional equipment.”

In its most recent update since the fire incident, the company could still not provide a likely date when services would be restored. It said:

“We continue to work through the process to enable access to the Bilsdale site to build the temporary mast.

“There is no specific new detail to share at this point but we are continuing to work round the clock to find a way forward.”

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The transmitter’s location within a government-protected area of 44,000 hectares of moorland continues to be a stumbling block.

The area was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its heathland habitat and breeding birds. Special permission needs to be granted for access across it.

Natural England says on its website:

“Heather moorland is rare on a worldwide scale – there is probably less heather moorland in the world than tropical rainforest.

“One of the largest continuous expanses of upland heather moorland in England and Wales is here in the North York Moors – a sheep could wander from Egton to Bilsdale without leaving it. Moorland covers a third of the North York Moors National Park and most of the higher ground is covered in heather.”

The area is also a designated Special Area of Conservation — a status reserved for important plant habitats in Europe — and a Special Protection Area because of its importance to breeding birds.

Although the access issues are yet to be resolved, Aquiva said last week some Freeview services had been restored for those who receive signals from smaller relay sites. None of them are in the Harrogate district.

A TV Licensing spokesman has said customers unable to receive TV coverage for more than a month will be eligible for a refund or free extension of their TV licence.