LUSH staff visited Buckingham Palace on Friday to hand over the 20,000 signatures collected from customers calling for the Queen’s help in stopping the illegal shooting of hen harriers in England.

“Our aim was always to raise the profile of this issue and collect as many signatures as possible, highlighting the support these birds have,” said Paul Morton of the Poole-based beauty products company.

“It’s criminal that even as the campaign was running birds were disappearing right under our noses, and the scary thing is, without the satellite tags we would never have known something was wrong.

“All we can hope is that the Royal Family take note of this support for the English countryside, and help put a stop to illegal persecution.”

Recently three satellite-tagged harriers, one Montagu’s and two hen harriers, went missing.