214 A Nurse The justice system’s response to egg collecting is primarily reactive, dependent on reports of egg collections in private possession or observation of egg collecting activity by field wardens and members of the public In relation to animal abuse, the involvement of NGOs without which offenders might not be apprehended provides an additional motivation for some individuals to commit crime For example, in a Channel Four Documentary entitled The Egg Detectives (1991); egg collector Colin Watson blamed the RSPB for his continued offending citing the destruction of his egg collection by the RSPB as a primary cause A complete list of possible neutralisations employed by wildlife offenders (as with some other offenders) can be outlined as follows: The The The The The The The denial of responsibility denial of injury condemnation of the condemners appeal to higher loyalties defence of necessity denial of the necessity of the law claim of entitlement Different offenders may use different neutralisations and may also be subject to different motivations (Nurse 2013a) Awareness of the illegal nature of their actions leads to the justifications outlined by Sykes and Matza (1957) but the association with other offenders, the economic (and employment related) pressures to commit offences and the personal consequences for them should they fail are strong motivations to commit offences (Merton 1968) Evidence (Nurse 2013a, 2011) shows that egg collectors use the following rationalisations to explain their activities: It is not harming anybody, the eggs are not fertile so why shouldn’t they be collected; Everybody did it when I was a boy it’s ridiculous that it’s considered to be criminal; The NGO needs to make the problem appear to be serious to keep raising money; It’s not a job for the police they should be out catching real criminals; We’re not criminals, we’re bird enthusiasts The techniques of denial, avoidance and attacks on the legitimacy of the enforcement agency (in the UK this means the RSPB in the USA the (state)