FROM PROTECT THE WILD — THE FUND KEEPS DRONES IN THE AIR

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more The Protect the Wild Equipment Fund in 2025 A few tweaks and a question for our supporters CHARLIE MOORES FEB 28 READ IN APP Back in 2023 (which is starting to feel quite a while ago!) Protect the Wild built on an idea that had started under Rob Pownall and Keep the Ban - the grassroots group that grew into Protect the Wild when Rob realised he wanted to tackle bird shooting and the badger cull as well as continue the work to end hunting with hounds. That idea became the ‘Protect the Wild Equipment Fund’, which provides equipment like bodycams, trail cams, radios, camcorders etc to monitor and sabs groups. That’s because we know that many groups or individuals who monitor or patrol are volunteers. They often have to buy the kit they need in the field themselves. We want to help make things a little easier by donating that equipment to them. Last year we donated over £13,000 pounds worth of kit to 28 groups. You can read what they had to say to us - and that means all of us who supported the fund - right here. 2025 will be no different. We’ve been giving out equipment already of course and thanks to all those who chip in to our equipment fund we kicked off the new year with a £500 donation to the wonderful Cheshire Independent Monitors (Cheshire Indies) who have been out on the ground for the best part of eight years and who’ve supported in the past. They told us that they would “like to massively thank Protect the Wild and their subscribers for their very generous donation for a new Camcorder to replace one of our old ones which was damaged whilst sabbing a Hunt recently.” You are very welcome, and will be very welcome next time too! We followed that up with a small donation to North East Hunt Monitors, a group who usually track the South Durham Hunt and who we have supported before (and will do so again if asked!). Shortly after we gave two new camcorders to a group we have - again - worked with regularly in the past and will happily support into the future: Hull Wildlife Protectors. They are a wildlife protection, rescue & transport group based around East Yorkshire and have done a huge amount of work to report on the Holderness Hunt (a hunt featured in a Secret Monitor post in February 2024). They told us: “These two camcorders will be invaluable in helping us protect wildlife and gather evidence for wildlife crimes in and around Hull. Their powerful zoom capabilities will allow HWP to monitor distant activities with precision, while their high-quality footage will ensure clear documentation of close encounters. We are very grateful to PTW for the continued help and support.” And just this week we have sent a bundle of kit including bodycams and ‘gizmos’ to Geordie Hunt Sabs. They are ‘in the post’ as we write this and we will post an update here on Substack asap! In the meantime, we highly recommend their Facebook HIT Reports which have a unique ‘Tyneside’ style and are often extremely funny… Funding We have slightly tweaked our funding model for the Equipment Fund in two ways this year. Firstly, some readers of this Substack are kind enough to subscribe - and as always all of the money raised through Substack subscriptions goes into the Equipment Fund pot. But we have also set up a Donorbox (linked to below) and any money coming into that again goes straight into the pot - and back out again as soon as possible (we don’t want to sit on these funds, we want them being used out in the field). The second change is more about us seeing an opportunity to expand the reach of the Fund. A number of independent groups have asked us in the past if we would cover equipment for - and/or the costs of - undercover work. Having discussed it at some length we think this is a logical expansion of the work many groups we already support are doing anyway, and as long as the work is legal and fits our remit of ‘Ending Hunting, Ending Bird Shooting, Ending the Badger Cull’ we should support it. After all the idea of the Fund has always been to ‘empower people to protect British wildlife’ and as long as that is what is being done we think you would want us to support it too. It’s impossible to say at this stage what proportion of the Equipment Fund might go towards undercover work, but we will always use what is of course your money as diligently and effectively as we can. Let us know in the comments below what you think. It matters to us that we have your support in this, and if you have any questions or comments we of course want to hear them. Sabbing and monitoring - protecting wildlife from the people who want to harm animals - can be dangerous and exhausting. But we, us, you, the groups we support are making a genuine difference, out in the field where it is needed. Hunts especially are losing support and being watched like never before. So, thank you to the groups out on the front line - and thank you to every single one of you who are supporting them. Chip in and help those on the frontline SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2025 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

FROM PROTECT THE WILD — FEDGING AND MORE FROM WILLOW WORLD

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Welcome to Willow Worlds, a 'wildlife enabling force of nature' Willow Worlds is researching a non-lethal way to stop deer damage to young trees by changing the wild animals' behaviour PROTECT THE WILD FEB 27 READ IN APP It is too often the case in Great Britain that 'wildlife management' ultimately means 'wildlife persecution'. Deer have not escaped this trend, with culling long being a go-to management technique utilised in the country. As an organisation dedicated to the safeguarding of wildlife, Protect the Wild is always eager to spotlight initiatives which demonstrate that another way is possible. One such project is happening in the Lowlands of Scotland. Welcome to Willow Worlds, a "wildlife enabling force of nature." As its name suggests, Willow Worlds is an initiative centred around the willow tree. More precisely, this community-led project in Fife is busy planting native trees of all kinds and surrounding them with 'fedges' – living fence hedges made of willow – to protect the trees from overgrazing by deer. Deer can negatively impact vegetation when they are present in large numbers, which in the case in Fife. Indeed, deer populations are currently large in many areas of Britain. This is because the country has historically persecuted any predators they have, such as wolves, out of existence, leaving their populations to grow and spread. Moreover, the way sporting estates operate has contributed to high deer numbers because these estates typically manage the animals to ensure an abundance of good 'trophies' for shooting. Keeping deer numbers down is one of the justifications that staghound packs give to continue their bloodthirsty pursuit. However, the British Deer Society has taken the position that it is "unable to justify the deliberate pursuit of healthy deer with hounds as an acceptable method of control." Protect the Wild wholeheartedly agrees with this. The impact deer have on vegetation and wooded areas, including commercial wood plantations, is one of the key reasons why they are killed in culls in Britain. In Scotland, most culling occurs in the Highlands, but it happens to an extent in the Lowlands too. Willow Worlds is researching a non-lethal way to stop deers damaging trees, by changing their behaviour with the assistance of willow fedge. Image via Duncan Zuill and the Willow Worlds project Teacher Duncan Zuill is the founder of the Willow Worlds project. In the initiative's Substack newsletter, where its findings are being documented, Zuill explained why he thinks non-lethal management offers a more effective solution to the overgrazing problem. He said: "As far as the trees are concerned, it's no good shooting the deer. We'd never shoot enough of them to make a difference. It only takes one industrious stag to devastate a tree planation over several years. We need to redirect the deer, so they can live wild without wrecking our tree-planting efforts." Protecting saplings from deer Protect the Wild spoke with Zuill about the Willow Worlds project. He explained that it has its roots close by, in the equally magical sounding Bats Wood. This once grassy area on a former playing field of the Levenmouth Academy is now rich with nature, thanks to Zuill, Levenmouth pupils, and others, planting vegetation and creating wildlife habitats in it since 2018. It is in Bat's Wood that the experiments with willow began. Zuill explained that they first planted a willow circle there, as a social space. Then they decided to use fedge made from the fast-growing tree to line a pathway. Deer damage was evident along the fedge-lined pathway, but the animals could not remove bark from the entire trunk, so the willow survived. This discovery led to experimentation with creating circles of willow fedge to try and protect growing trees. Image via Duncan Zuill and the Willow Worlds project As Zuill wrote on Substack, what they discovered about willow fedge was revelatory: "Inside these living walls, saplings grew unmolested, nourished by mulch and organic matter... Like the influence of wolves on a landscape, these thickets created places where deer didn’t go—without excluding them entirely, like deer fences." In Willow Worlds, which is supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Bat's Wood research is being scaled up. Other community-led groups are collaborating with the project to create three "little hill-forests" in nearby Muiredge Park, all of which will be encircled with fedge, like a trinity of neighbouring nature havens all wrapped in a willow embrace. Fedging doesn't just shift problems elsewhere Muiredge Park already has one wee forest, which Zuill was also involved with. Wee forests are Scotland's version of the 'tiny forests' conceived by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. These small forested areas, packed with hundreds of trees, have been popping up all over Europe in recent years. This is not by accident, but by design, as Earthwatch Europe has promoted their creation in the UK and elsewhere since 2020. Indeed, the tiny forest movement is a global affair, with the many in countries like the US too. But the three Willow World circles will be unique, given they will be shielded from deer by willow fedge rather than a fence. In essence, the difference between wooded areas with fedge and those with fences is that the former continues to provide a certain level of sustenance to deer, as they can browse on the outward-facing side of the fedge. Ultimately, this means that fedge promises to be a solution to over-browsing that doesn't simply create a problem elsewhere by excluding deer entirely, like fencing does. Exclusion forces deer to seek out other wooded areas for food or rubbing spots for the males when their antlers get itchy. Nonetheless, there are uncertainties in how Willow Worlds' fedge-encircled hill-forests will fare in a public area like Muiredge Park, not only with the deer, but with the general public too. Zuill pointed out that fedges are vulnerable in the first couple of months, until their roots are developed, which means they need to be initially undisturbed. How well trees will grow in the three areas, with each of their soils prepared in different ways, is also an open question. Time (and research) will tell. Image via Duncan Zuill and the Willow Worlds project A diversity of solutions But Zuill is hopeful that fedges offer a promising solution to overgrazing deer and other problems. Plastic pollution is among the issues it could tackle because tree plantations are typically protected by plastic tree guards. Oftentimes, these guards remain in the environment long after the trees have grown – or failed to grow – adding to the plastic pollution crisis. Fedges are more sustainable in another sense too, considering that they grow along with the trees they safeguard. This means that branches of the fedge can be periodically cut off and used to make more fedge, Zuill pointed out. The Willow Worlds founder believes that fedge could be a way of doing plastic-free tree planting almost anywhere, with the willow safeguarding young trees not only from deer but also trampling and disturbance by people. However, fedge does have limitations with regard to protection from deer. In Bat's Wood and Muiredge Park's Willow Worlds, the aim is to safeguard young trees from roe deer specifically, as this species is common in the area. Zuill highlighted that fedge would stand little chance against bigger species, such as red deer. They would "just burst through a willow fedge while eating it all," Zuill said. As a recent study highlighted, the reintroduction of wolves in certain places where red deer live could control their numbers. The study focused on the Scottish Highlands, calculating that a population of less than 200 wolves would sufficiently reduce deer numbers to a threshold that would allow "substantial native woodland expansion" and bring associated climate benefits. In other words, there is no one size fits all solution to tackling overgrazing by deer. Solutions need to be diverse, like the natural world itself, and particular to the situation they are deployed in. For its part, willow fedge promises to be a humane solution for overgrazing by certain deer species, while also addressing plastic pollution by reducing the need for plastic tree guards. Of course, the fedges also ultimately help to tackle the climate and nature crises by safeguarding nature-rich, carbon-storing forests. Protect the Wild is excited to see how the Willow Worlds project develops. To follow its progress, you can subscribe to the project's Substack newsletter here. SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2025 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

FROM BUMBLEBEE CONSERVATION — 2024 WAS A BAD YEAR FOR BUMBLEBEES

view online Bumblebee Conservation Trust logo 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began The latest findings from BeeWalk, the national bumblebee monitoring scheme run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, have revealed that 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began. Across Great Britain, bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) compared to the 2010-2023 average. The 24 species of bumblebee are iconic British insects which also play a vital role in pollinating crops and wildflowers, making their decline a major ecological concern. Expanding conservation efforts, a greater emphasis on habitat restoration, and continued monitoring are all key to safeguarding their future. The immediate cause of the 2024 declines is likely to have been the cold and wet conditions from late April through June. The poor spring and early summer weather severely impacted many species in their most vulnerable period, the colony establishment stage, where queen bumblebees function as single mothers and must feed themselves and their growing larvae while also incubating the nest. Species that typically reach their maximum abundance - the total number of individuals of a species present in a given area - in June or July suffered dramatically. Observations of common species White-tailed (Bombus lucorum s.l.) and Red-tailed (Bombus lapidarius) bumblebees fell by 60% and 74%, respectively, declining in England, Scotland, and Wales. Other species affected include: 🐝 Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) ⬇️ down 39% 🐝 Southern Cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus vestalis) ⬇️ down 38% 🐝 Garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) ⬇️ down 12.5% 🐝 Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) ⬇️ down 9.5% As weather conditions improved in July and August, bumblebees were able to stage a partial recovery but 2024 still had the second-worst July and August counts on record. Species which usually reach their maximum abundance in August, including many rarer British species, displayed mixed trends in 2024: 🐝 Heath bumblebee (Bombus jonellus) ⬆️ up 63%, due to a strong second generation 🐝 Brown-banded Carder bumblebee (Bombus humilis) ⬆️ up 13% 🐝 Common Carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) ⬇️ down 16% 🐝 Moss Carder bumblebee (Bombus muscorum) ⬇️ down 34% England and Wales’ rarest bumblebee, the Shrill carder bumblebee (Bombus sylvarum) was up 74%. However, this was driven mainly by good numbers being recorded in the Thames Estuary population. The Shrill carder was not recorded at all in two of its five remaining populations. Science Manager Dr Richard Comont said “The 2024 results from BeeWalk highlight just how vulnerable our bumblebee populations are to shifting climate and environmental conditions. With another challenging year behind us, monitoring in 2025 will be crucial to understanding how - and whether - these species can recover.” Dr Amy Plowman, Head of Conservation and Science said; “Sadly, this year’s results show the worst counts on record, with particularly worrying drops in numbers for the White-tailed and Red-tailed bumblebee. These findings highlight the urgent need for action to protect our vital pollinators. We are incredibly grateful to our dedicated BeeWalkers whose commitment to citizen science allows us to track their populations, and we need everyone to help us to secure their future”. Read full report 🐝 Become a BeeWalker 🚶🏽 Did you know you can subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow our projects on X: @nikkigammans @BuzzingWales @BuzzingShrill @BuzzingScotland YouTube icon Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Registered Charity No: 1115634 / Scottish Charity No: SC042830. © 2025 Bumblebee Conservation Trust. All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you are already a member, subscribed via our website, an event or when becoming a volunteer. We hope you enjoy reading it! Registered address: International House, 109-111 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JA; Correspondence address: Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Beta Centre, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling FK9 4NF Unsubscribe

FROM THE HUNT SABOTUERS — A COURT APPEARANCE WITH GUILTY PLEAS AND SENTENCING SOON

View this email in your browser Hi, Ex-Huntsman Sam Staniland Convicted of Animal Cruelty Yesterday, Sam Staniland, the former huntsman of the Essex & Suffolk Hunt, appeared at Ipswich Magistrates' Court facing six charges related to animal cruelty, including allowing dogs to fight with badgers and foxes. Staniland arrives at court. Image: South Suffolk Hunt Sabs The case was brought by the RSPCA and Suffolk Police Rural Crime Team, following evidence discovered when police seized Staniland’s phone during an investigation into a separate fox hunting incident. This evidence led to an RSPCA raid on the kennels in January 2023. The offences occurred between 2020 and 2023 in Hadleigh and St Osyth in Essex. As a result of the raid, six men were arrested and 22 terriers were seized. The investigation implicated huntsmen from three different hunts, including Staniland, who had previously been convicted of illegal hunting while serving as huntsman for the now-defunct Meynell & South Staffs Hunt. Following these revelations, the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) suspended Staniland and others, leading to them being sacked by their respective hunts. Charges Against Staniland Causing unnecessary suffering to a foxhound by failing to prevent it from fighting a fox (17th October 2022). Causing animal fighting to take place (17th October 2022). Failing to protect a female Patterdale terrier from suffering between 6th and 21st April 2023. The terrier had injuries to her skin, muzzle, and nose. Failing to prevent three Patterdale terriers from fighting foxes and badgers between 21st March and 23rd April 2023. Failing to prevent dogs from fighting a badger (11th February 2021). Failing to prevent two black lurcher dogs from fighting a badger (17th October 2022). Convictions and Outcome Staniland pleaded guilty to three charges, while the remaining charges were dismissed. He was found guilty of: Failing to meet the welfare needs of three Patterdale terriers - Scandal, Vice, and Roxy - by allowing them to fight badgers and foxes (21st March – 21st April 2023). Causing suffering to a foxhound by failing to prevent it from fighting a fox (17th October 2022). Causing suffering to a second foxhound under the same circumstances (17th October 2022). Failing to ensure the welfare needs of two lurcher-type dogs, allowing them to fight a badger (17th October 2022). The prosecution did not proceed with the remaining charges, leading to their dismissal. Staniland leaves court. Image: South Suffolk Hunt Sabs Staniland left the court with a smirk, holding a Bag for Life he had filled with his belongings, in case he was remanded in custody. Staniland holds onto his belongings, relieved to have avoided being remanded in custody. Image: South Suffolk Hunt Sabs He is due to be sentenced at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on 10th April 2025, with all sentencing options still under consideration. The new huntsman of the Essex & Suffolk Hunt, John Henty, and former Whipper-in Jamie Price, are both due in court 11th March 2025 for a Section 1 Hunting Offence from footage captured by Suffolk Action For Wildlife. A HSA spokesperson commented, “These are just the latest cases of blatant illegal hunting and animal cruelty. Please email your local MP and urge them to pressure Labour into delivering their promised ban on the smokescreen of 'trail hunting.' Many of these hideously cruel offences occurred while foxes and badgers were pregnant or caring for newborn cubs. We cannot comprehend the mindset of those who choose to inflict such pain and suffering on our wildlife, and we call on the government to take action to end it once and for all." Please support South Suffolk Hunt Sabs who have kept the pressure on the Essex and Suffolk Hunt - ko-fi.com/southsuffolkhuntsabs Get involved! Find out how you can be part of our campaign to Strengthen The Hunting Act Take Action Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2025 Hunt Saboteurs Association. All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from Hunt Saboteurs Association. Our mailing address is: BM HSA, London, WC1N 3XX, U.K. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe

A REQUEST FRO PROTECT THE WILD — GET A SMALL KEYRING

View this email in your browser The coming months are set to be monumental for Protect the Wild. We’re working on: ✅ A powerful new mini-site exposing the devastation caused by hunts ✅ Two major reports on wildlife persecution and the treatment of hunting hounds ✅ Several new animations to spread awareness ✅ A renewed push for a proper hunting ban, with a "Contact Your MP" tool launching next week ✅ Driving the petition to end the Badger Cull towards a Parliamentary debate ✅ A major new campaign and website to bring an end to bird shooting ✅ More equipment and resources for activists—including the development of a mental health support service ✅ Ongoing undercover investigations across the UK I couldn’t be prouder of what we’re achieving. For such a small team, we certainly make a big impact. These emails are crucial in keeping us going. I know we send a fair few, and I wish we didn’t have to, but they make a huge difference in funding this vital work. If you'd like to show your support, you can grab a PTW wooden keyring for just £1.95, helping to fuel everything we do. Thank you, as always, for standing with us. 💚 Rob Pick up a keyring Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD Covent Garden, London 71-75 Shelton Street WC2H 9JQ Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

FROM AMY CRAWFORD - A BUGBYTES NEWSLETTER

BugBytes Image - Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) © Patrick Clement (Flickr, CC BY 2.0) Dear John Welcome to the February edition of Buglife's e-newsletter, BugBytes! Keeping you up to date with invertebrate news, interesting snippets of information and so much more. This month, we bring you an exclusive reveal of the All Aboard the B-Line Competition Winners and Runner Ups, articles on light pollution and the threat that algae poses to our freshwater systems, as well as some new listening material for our green fingered readers. We hope you enjoy, thank you for your ongoing interest and support of our work! Invertebrate of the Year is back! The Guardian’s Invertebrate of the Year competition was set-up to celebrate and raise awareness for the unsung heroes of our planet – invertebrates! We’ve joined The Guardian in spotlighting some of the overlooked groups and the threats that they face, like light pollution. Light pollution is one of the only remaining ‘acceptable pollutions’, yet it has devasting consequences on invertebrates, other wildlife and even people. Read more... Light pollution - guardian article Last year, the resounding winner of the Invertebrate of the Year competition (with 38% of the popular vote) was the Common Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) – an integral composter and soil-maker. Which invertebrate will take the crown this year? There is still time to vote! The competition closes on Monday 3 March. Vote Now! Speaking of light, have you pledged to keep it inside? Bright artificial lights in urban settings and coastal areas can be harmful for terrestrial and aquatic organisms alike. Every time we turn on a light, we risk polluting the natural world. But what if helping to protect nature was as simple as drawing the curtains/lowering a blind? Help us reduce light pollution by supporting our campaign, ‘Curtains for Light Pollution’ and by doing your bit to keep inside light 'inside’ for invertebrates. Make Your Pledge Curtains for Light Pollution All Aboard the B-Line At the beginning of the year, our Get London Buzzing project held an art competition aimed at the young people of London. Entrants were asked to create a poster inspired by pollinators and Buglife’s B-Lines – our unique solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. With over 60 entries from young people across the capital city, our judging panel had the hard task of choosing a winner and runner up for each of the age categories. We are delighted to share the winners and runners up with you: AATB Winners_Runner Ups (1) For the last two years, the Get London Buzzing project has connected with local communities, schools and businesses to champion pollinators, raise awareness of the threats that they face, and educate people on how they can help them. The posters are being showcased until the Monday 3 March. We hope that people commuting, travelling or exploring via the London Underground will take a moment to enjoy the artwork and learn more about pollinators and explore the easy actions that they can take to help and protect pollinators. Visit the project page to learn more... All Aboard the B-Line artwork All Aboard the B-Line posters spotted whilst travelling through the London Underground © David Smith Have you come across algae blooms on your winter walks? Join Buglife Conservation Director, Craig Macadam, in this reflection on the devastating consequences and realities that algae blooms have on our freshwater systems. Read more... Algae blog The Happy Garden Podcast If you listen to the Happy Garden Podcast , you may have heard Buglife’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, Paul Hetherington, monthly invertebrate updates. In one of their latest episodes, Paul shared which invertebrates you are likely to see in your garden at this time of year. Have a listen, or listen again (listening time 01:12:00-01:20:10) and find out which visitors to expect. Listen Here Upcoming Events Monday 3 March ~ Insect Dogfights: how Aerial Combat Shapes the Patterns of Insect Flight with The Biological Recording Company (Online) Wednesday 5 March ~ Dragonflies of the UK Part 2 with The Biological Recording Company (Online) Thursday 6 March ~ Managing Green Spaces in B-Lines for Pollinators in Scotland (Online) Tuesday 11 March ~ Species on the Edge: Winter Talk Series: Leaf beetles with Suzanne Burgess (Online) Wednesday 12 March ~ Walk the Wick! (Canvey Wick, Essex) Monday 24 March ~ Earthworm Watch: Insights Into Urban Earthworm Communities with The Biological Recording Company (Online) Tuesday 25 March ~ Crayfish 2: Undertaking Your Survey with The Biological Recording Company (Online) Wednesday 26 March ~ Walk the Wick! (Canvey Wick, Essex) Thursday 27 March ~ Managing Green Spaces in B-Lines for Pollinators in Northern Ireland (Online) Saturday 29 March ~ Invertebrate Field Recorder Day with the Biological Recording Company (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London) Tuesday 3 April ~ Species Reintroduction – It’s Not Just Beavers with FarmED (Honeydale Farm, Chipping Norton) Keep up to date with both current and future Buglife events, as well as events from partners and supporters by visiting the Events Page on our website. News in Brief Partnership helps restore networks for nature – and you can see the signs A partnership to create networks for nature has restored eight flower-rich meadow habitats around Telford and Wrekin, with signs explaining some of the species that can be found there. Find out more... Conservation charities hail recommendation to save Middlewick Ranges Wildlife charities have welcomed a report from Colchester City Council that would secure the future of the nationally important Middlewick Ranges wildlife site by saving it from the threat of housing. In a critical week for the future of Middlewick’s threatened species, the Council has recommended remove the nature haven from its Local Plan. This has led to charities and local community groups urging councillors to support the move- and back a newly presented Vision for a Middlewick Ranges Nature Reserve. Find out more.. Buglife Shop The Buglife shop is open for all your invertebrate needs, offering more ethical options and ways to support bugs. We have a brand new catalogue for you to browse through! From t-shirts to bug hotels, there is something for everyone. So, whether you've got 'Ants in your Pants' or your 'Going At a Snails Pace', by visiting our shop you'll help bugs in the process! Shop Banner-R Shop Now And Finally... Don't forget you can stay up to date with the work of the Buglife team via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube ! Thank you for your continued interest in and support of our work; together we can save the small things that run the planet! Join Buglife Unsubscribe Company No. 4132695 | Registered Charity No. 1092293 | Scottish Charity No.SC040004 Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust is a company limited by guarantee Registered in England at G.06, Allia Future Business Centre, London Road, Peterborough, PE2 8AN FR

WILD JUSTICE APPOINT A CEO — A PERSON WITH VAST EXPERIENCE

Good morning! Today’s newsletter announces the appointment of Wild Justice’s first Chief Executive. We’re pleased to tell you that Bob Elliot will be joining us later this spring. Bob has worked in the nature conservation and animal welfare sector for over 30 years and will be joining us from the Scotland-based charity OneKind where he has worked as CEO for the last seven years. Prior to that, Bob worked as Head of Investigations at the RSPB for over 10 years as well as other roles with The National Trust for Scotland and The Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Commenting on his appointment, Bob said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Wild Justice and to help play a part in protecting and restoring wildlife. This team’s dedication to legal challenges and campaigning to hold governments accountable and strengthen environmental protections aligns perfectly with my passion for conservation. “With my background in nature conservation, wildlife crime investigations, and animal welfare policy and campaigning, I’m excited to work alongside a team that’s truly making a difference. I look forward to helping drive change, inspiring public involvement, and fighting for a better future for nature”. You can read our full announcement, including comments from Ruth, Chris and Mark, on our blog by clicking here. We hope you’re as excited as we are to have Bob on board. We’re looking forward to continuing the fight for justice for wildlife with him. Thank you, Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 229th Wild Justice newsletter. This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action or a petition where you ticked a box. Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days). 9 Lawson St Raunds Wellingborough Northants NN9 6NG UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

TARRAS VALLEY AND HEN HARRIERS FROM PROTECT THE WILD

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Tarras Valley, Hen Harriers, and the lies of the shooting industry The industry simply can't be trusted CHARLIE MOORES FEB 26 READ IN APP Last week yet another young Hen Harrier disappeared 'in suspicious circumstances' (the phrase used in official announcements which essentially means 'we know what happened, but we can't prove it'). 'Red' hatched in a nest on the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve in 2024 and 'disappeared' on a grouse moor in County Durham in January 2025. Charlie Moores visited the Tarras Valley in 2021 for a short series of podcasts (which are no longer available sadly), and looks back on the thrilling potential of what was then a fledgling reserve - and the fears that everyone had for 'their Hen Harriers' once they left the reserve for moorlands further afield... The Langholm Initiative Back in December 2021 - and some ten months before I started working with Protect the Wild - I was invited up to Scotland to record a short series of podcasts. They were made to support the Langholm Initiative, a community buyout centred around Eskdale and Langholm (a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway just 20 miles north of Carlisle) that aimed to turn a 'knackered old grouse moor' into the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. The buyout involved local people and the Duke of Buccleuch, one of the richest men in the UK who at the time owned a staggering 217,000 acres of moorland, farms and forestry (the Duke's family seat at Drumlanrig features on bloodbusiness.info) including Langholm Moor and the Tarras Valley. The buyout attempt began when Buccleuch Estates announced in May 2019 that they planned to sell 25,000 acres of Langholm Moor and the Tarras Valley. Community interest in buying at least some of the land grew rapidly and the Langholm Initiative launched a fundraising campaign on behalf of the community. 'The Impossible Dream' - as it was termed initially - took off. The campaign attracted national interest and support from all over the world, and in just six months attracted £3.8m in grants and funding, including £200,000 raised via an online crowdfunder. When I visited at the tail end of 2021 the community had already bought 5,200 acres of land which included upland moor, ancient woodland, meadows, peatlands and a river valley. Plans were well underway to create a nationally important reserve. Building on the success of the first fundraiser, a second was launched to buy an additional 5000 acres. The money had to be raised by May 2022 or the land could be put up for sale on the open market, and the chance to manage a whopping 10,000 acres could be lost. Hence the podcasts - a small but hopefully significant contribution to that second fundraising effort. And why on December 7th 2021, just two weeks after Storm Arwen battered Scotland and northern England ripping up trees and bringing down power lines, and on the very same day that Storm Barra battered Scotland, I found myself in a car overlooking the Tarras Valley with Jenny Barlow, Estate Manager of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, and Angela Williams, Development Manager of the reserve, before we drove along the track that winds through the valley and out the other side... Potential December is not the best time of year to enjoy the wildlife of the Scottish uplands. It's cold, summer migrants have left, and most wildlife is hunkering down in survival mode. The day I visited the area was lashed with wind and rain. There were no Hen Harriers, the heather wasn't a vibrant purple, the air was not full of pipits or larks or humming with bees. But then I wasn't there to see wildlife, I was there to hear about the potential of the reserve, about what it would become. About the Hen Harriers that would breed there, the butterflies and the plants, the Red Grouse and (if they could buy part of the mountains in the distance) the Ptarmigan. Many years ago (back in the 1970s), I was living in Lancashire and lucky enough to have a grandmother who strongly encouraged her two young grandsons in their growing passion for birds. She would regularly ferry my brother Nial and me to a patch of wetland and farmland that would become Martin Mere, a world-renowned Wildfowl and Wetland Trust Centre. The reserve was still in the planning stages and - remarkably - Peter Gladstone, the then-warden, was also incredibly supportive of the two pre-teens who kept showing up and asking about wintering Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls. Some days he would point to an area of the reserve and actually allow us to go wandering out over the fields to 'have a look'. It's unthinkable that anyone would be allowed to do that now, but looking back it's clear he wanted us to share the enthusiasm and the vision he had for what he could see was going to be a hugely important site for geese, ducks, raptors, and shorebirds. I haven't been back for many years now, but I will always feel connected to Martin Mere. Sitting in the car with Jenny and Angela, I was reminded of how I felt all those years ago. As we talked I found myself connecting with a site with similarly huge potential. They were weaving stories, filling in a rather bleak and barren landscape with pictures of the wildlife that would be there, the colours that would emerge, the life that would come back, over time, to that 'knackered grouse moor'. It was genuinely inspiring, exciting, and unexpectedly optimistic. I'd seen my first Hen Harrier at Martin Mere. I've seen them in many places since, but I knew that if I ever came back to Tarras Valley I would see another, perhaps displaying pairs, even chicks. Protected and safe. I so wanted to help in some way. I didn't work for a platform like Protect the Wild back then, but I wanted the excitement of those conversations to be captured in the podcasts I planned. I wanted them to matter. The second fundraiser felt so important. It was vital to get that extra land - not just for the wildlife but for the remarkable team that was planning the future of the reserve, for the community who clearly cared hugely about the valley and the uplands. Vital, too, for the young people who might spend a lifetime trying to protect wildlife after coming to such a wonderful place, seeing its potential, and feeling 'connected' to it. The team did in fact manage to buy the extra land. They are now one of South Scotland’s biggest community landowners, and the community of Langholm now legally owns 10,500 acres of the Tarras Valley and Langholm Moor. I'm not saying for a second that my podcasts played much of a part - everyone I spoke with back in 2021 were determined to make ‘the dream’ a reality, and they did. It's an incredible achievement. And Hen Harriers breed in good numbers now: a Facebook post in December 2024 stated that "2024 has been another incredible year for Tarras Valley’s hen harriers! Eight chicks successfully fledged this year, including Ceilidh, Red, and Gilda, who we’ve been thrilled to follow as they explore new territories across the UK." TVNR Facebook post Hen Harrier The Shooting Industry The December post from the reserve is both exciting and heartbreaking. 'Red', who features so prominently, is dead. Two other Hen Harriers from Tarras Valley disappeared in similar suspicious circumstances, also last seen on English grouse moors, in 2021 and 2022. We know this because all the birds hatched at Tarras Valley carry 'satellite tags' as part of an RSPB programme to gather more information about the movements of these massively persecuted birds of prey. The tags give GPS locations and are worn like tiny rucksacks. They are incredibly reliable, continuing to transmit even after a bird dies. Assuming - that is - the bird dies a natural death. If it is shot and killed on a grouse moor the tag is usually removed and destroyed so the body can't be traced. That happens routinely, which is why ‘Red’ and so many other Hen Harriers are said to have 'disappeared' and why their deaths can't be proven to be down to persecution. Understanding where persecution was taking place is why Hen Harriers began to be fitted with satellite tags in the first place. They have proved that persecution is undoubtedly what is happening to these wonderful birds. Amongst a very varied diet (which includes voles and Meadow Pipits), Hen Harriers take grouse chicks - chicks from moorland stocked at levels up to ten times higher than densities found on unmanaged moors. The RSPB says that the majority of raptor persecution incidents are associated with land managed for bird shooting, and a rolling tally kept by Raptor Persecution UK states that ‘Red’ is actually the 134th Hen Harrier to go 'missing' or to be illegally killed since 2018 (the year Natural England issued a licence to begin a Hen Harrier brood meddling trial on grouse moors in northern England which they claimed - erroneously and idiotically of course - would end persecution). Utter indifference Meanwhile lobbyists for the shooting industry claim that all is well because the number of Hen Harrier chicks being born has been slowly rising. In fact, though, in September 2024 Natural England reported that there had been a drop in breeding attempts, recording a total of just 34 breeding attempts in England (down from 54 in 2023) of which only 25 were successful, and while the number of chicks was rising - from pathetically low levels at the turn of the century and thanks to the efforts of pioneers like the communities at Langholm and the RSPB - as we have said repeatedly (see Hen Harriers and Greenwashing for example) counting chicks simply doesn’t take into account what will happen to those birds when they start ranging more widely. Many of them will be killed. Killed while they are still young and before they can breed. It doesn't really matter how many chicks are born, how much potential a site like Tarras has, how much a community pours its heart into conservation if Hen Harriers are routinely shot on grouse moors. Estates and their employees, gamekeepers like the ones recorded and exposed on Channel 4 talking about taking out 'bombers' (their name for Hen Harriers), don't want more Hen Harriers, they want fewer. Shooting lobbyists talk about clamping down on wildlife crime, but do absolutely nothing about it. It collectively owns far more land than the handful of buyouts and conservationists, they are barely regulated, barely monitored, and simply can't be trusted. The entire industry is appallingly indifferent to what the rest of us want. It's why Protect the Wild has always opposed licencing the grouse industry. There's no point whatsoever giving it a ‘licencing lifeline’ when the industry has no intention of stopping the persecution, there are no extra funds for enforcement, and the regulations are already being watered down to the point where they are ineffective (much like has happened with the Hunting Act 2004 and the numerous exemptions that have allowed foxhunting to continue). release area at Linhope Release pens on Linhope Estate, Northumberland (from Secret Monitor post) Neither do we think that it is nearly enough to campaign for a ban on driven grouse shooting. The climate emergency is already altering the way 'grouse moors' are run. They are increasingly less viable, and many estates are ramping up pheasant and partridge shooting, exploiting birds which can live out their short lives on less prime moorland (often at lower altitudes than grouse), are reared in pens before release, and are less fussy when it comes to diet. Thousands of these non-native birds can be released in small areas. Anyone who doesn't think that the gamekeepers will go less hard on Hen Harriers for taking young pheasants or partridges needs their head looking at. Neither I nor Protect the Wild are spokespeople for the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve of course, but it seems to us that the only answer - the only way that the Hen Harriers born at Tarras will survive to repopulate landscapes across Scotland and England - is to end bird shooting altogether. Not parts of it, but all of it. Only then can all that hope, that energy, that passion for wild landscapes and biodiversity, and all that potential really be fulfilled. The fight to end Bird shooting starts now! Stand with us! Shooting birds for fun is not normal. It’s cruel, senseless, and propped up by the mass slaughter of foxes, stoats, mountain hares, and other wildlife to protect the very birds that are later gunned down. We are making it our mission to turn bird shooting into a toxic, unacceptable relic of the past. Building the ultimate website against bird shooting—a one-stop hub packed with facts, investigations, undercover footage, animations, and campaigns exposing this industry for what it really is. Creating powerful new social media platforms dedicated entirely to dismantling the arguments of the shooting lobby and bringing the truth to the public. Assembling a specialist team—undercover investigators, campaigners, researchers, and writers—all working to take this industry down. But to do that, we need your help. This fight is massive, and it won’t come cheap. If you want to help us end bird shooting for good, please support our work by adopting a bird today. Together, we can expose this industry and bring its cruelty to an end. Adopt a Bird By adopting a bird with Protect the Wild, you’ll directly support our mission to end bird shooting and fund the vital work outlined above. Every adoption helps us fight harder, expose cruelty, and push for change. As a thank you, you’ll receive an exclusive Protect the Wild adoption pack, including a cuddly owlet, a glossy photo, and a fact sheet packed with information about the bird you’re helping to protect. SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2025 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

DEPLORING THE MASS SHOOTING OF GAME BIRDS — A POEM

In response to the campaign about the mass shooting of imported game birds. And it is still going on years after I wrote this short poem to reinstate in peoples mind the slaughter every August. It is accompanied by two other poems focusing around 12th August and they are contained in my latest collection ‘Co-existence’ The Twelfth? Never! quick upward flight crack crash-crack suddenly altered into a fast whirling out-of-control plunge crack crash-crack dead or worse still only dying bombs into the eco-system that nurtured it. To allow a feather to break free from the body that was its life crack crash-crack they hear the call of death once more filling the skies with harmed and harmless birds with toxic lead shot with death echo after echo re-echoes the vision stays the guns go silent the dogs begin their work

CONVICTION REPORTED BY HEREFORDSHIRE HUNT SABS

In court today, Sam Staniland accepted a plea bargain and was found guilty of multiple animal cruelty charges related to his role as (ex) huntsman of the Essex and Suffolk Hunt. The Stanilands are a local family, with Sam starting out his hunting career whipping in at the Ludlow where his mother was hunt secretary for twenty years. The Stanilands also have close links to the Herefordshire and Clifton and Wheatland Hunts. Sam had been previously convicted while at the Meynell and his whipper in at the Essex and Suffolk (also up on further Hunting Act charges alongside Staniland) was Jamie Price, who whipped in for a season at the Herefordshire and Clifton. This case is the perfect illustration of how convicted hunt staff are not just bad apples but part of a network of cruelty and criminality that underpins the 'country tradition' the BHSA, Countryside Alliance and Hunting Kind are so keen to preserve.

LAMPING AND ANOTHER WAY TO KILL —ITS NOT KNEW BUT??? FROM PROTECT THE WILD

View this email in your browser Have you heard of lamping? Every night across Britain, powerful spotlights sweep the countryside, locking onto rabbits, foxes, and hares. A gunshot rings out—or a dog is released to rip the animal apart. This is lamping—a brutal, legal bloodsport disguised as ‘pest control.’ With high-powered rifles, night vision, and trained dogs, lampers turn the countryside into a killing ground. So why is this still legal? And what can we do to stop it? Watch now to uncover the truth. Watch here PS. Want to support our work? Check out the Protect the Wild shop! :) We have so many lovely items with all profits supporting our vital campaigning. Shop Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

DRONE ATTACK ON A SABS DRONE — COUNTERMEASURES ALWAYS NECESSARY FROM THE HUNT SABS

View this email in your browser Hi, Beaufort Hunt Heighten Drone Wars In Premeditated Attack In November 2024, the Beaufort Hunt were hunting foxes at Widley’s Gorse, located on farmland owned by the Duke of Beauforts’ Badminton Estate and farmed by the fox-hunting Hibbard family, when the pack of hounds attacked a fox which was seeking refuge in a badger sett. Beaufort hounds attack the badger sett. Wiltshire Hunt Sabs were present and monitoring the hunt with a drone, which captured footage of the hounds attacking the badger sett. After the attack, aware that sabs had likely filmed the attack, the huntsman led the hounds to nearby Commonwood Farm, a regular hunt safe-haven, while the sab drone continued to track their movements overhead. The huntsman on the left watches the drone attack from his horse. This was the drone's last moments in the sky over Commonwood Farm. Unbeknown to sabs, the hunt had a countermeasure prepared. In a first-of-its-kind attack in the UK, the hunt launched their own drone, fitted with a wire and weight designed to entangle the sab drone’s rotors. The attack drone operator waited for the right moment to strike. The hunt lingered at Commonwood Farm, allowing the operator to position the hostile drone. The first attempt to bring down the sab drone failed, causing only a brief signal loss, but the second attempt succeeded. Both drones fell to the ground near barns at Commonwood Farm. Our drones’ camera just caught a glimpse of the end of the attack cord. This was used to entangle the moving rotors as the drone was in flight. The recording from the drone is streamed to the operator's remote, hence we were able to provide video of the attack. Immediately after the drones came crashing to earth, a hunt rider in full Beaufort regalia rushed to the scene, abandoning his horse in order to stamp on and smash the sabs drone and destroy its signaling capability. A quad bike arrived next, driven by well-known hunt employee James Milsom, who assisted in the removal of evidence from the scene. His rear passenger began helping the dismounted rider who now appeared to be receiving instructions via his phone. Milsom then took the remains of the sab drone and hid it under scrap metal on the farm. The three Beaufort members then untangled the wire from their attack drone, which was relaunched and returned to its operator. The Beaufort hunter is assisted by the fencer quad to relaunch the attack drone moments after they had brought down the sab drone and destroyed it. What the hunt didn’t know was that a long-range camera had been trained on them throughout much of the incident. This footage, combined with the sab drone’s video feed - which is automatically saved to the operator’s fly app - provided clear evidence of the attack and the individuals involved. The sabs alerted police, and armed officers arrived, initially believing the drone had been shot down. However, despite requests to search the farm or the nearby silver-grey hunt supporters truck parked where the drone had crashed, no meaningful search took place. Armed police and response officers attended but failed to search the known silver Mitsubishi support truck which arrived at the farm most certainly to assist with the removal of evidence of the attack. Six weeks later, on January 11th, the hunt attempted a repeat of this tactic. On an exceptionally cold day when most hunts stayed home, with the ground too frozen for horses, the hunt, not keen on losing more revenue from hunt subscribers, instead opted to hunt on foot; meeting at midday at Badminton House, the Duke’s private estate. Hounds quickly picked up the scent of a fox hiding in hay bales at nearby Wick Farm, Luckington. The sab drone, tracking the hunt, spotted a hunt member on their phone, seemingly coordinating or relaying instructions. The hounds were attacking the stacked haybales where a fox was hiding out. The hunt support below notice the drone overhead, quickly got out their phone and made a call. Soon, the hunt launched another hostile drone, again equipped with a wire and weight. This time, however, the sab drone managed to evade the attack, capturing footage of the hostile drone swinging its tethered weight wildly in the air. As the hunt drone’s battery depleted, it returned to its operator. The sab drone followed and recorded its landing deep within the Duke’s estate, where three individuals stood near a silver VW. The footage clearly showed the hunt members untangling the wire from their drone. The registration plate of the vehicle, along with open bottles of alcohol, was also captured on camera. The attack drone returned to its operator deep inside the Badminton Estate, with it’s tethered fishing wire and weight attached. The attack failed this time. Image Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs Sabs immediately called the police, armed with clear video evidence, including the operators’ identities and actions. While the footage provided undeniable proof of the hunt’s illegal and premeditated activities, police eventually turned up several hours later, once again failing to search for evidence, and choosing not to exercise the numerous powers available to them against the wealthy and well-connected hunt members. The sab drone followed the drone to its operator, who turned out to be none other than the ex Beaufort Huntsman Tony Holdsworth, accompanied by two female line detanglers, one of which is Toni Ponting, a Beaufort stalwart with a long history of assaults against hunt sabs. Later that day, one of the attack drone trio was arrested under different circumstances. As the hunt was wrapping up, a visibly intoxicated man exited the driver’s seat of the same silver vehicle. Spotting a sab walking alone down a public road, the man launched an unprovoked physical attack. A female accomplice joined in, filming the assault with one hand while using the other to scratch and pull the sab’s hair. When a second sab intervened to defuse the situation, the woman turned her attention to them, continuing her violent outburst. Huntsman Tony Holdsworth who hunted the Beaufort hounds until 2016, exited the car he was driving and launched into an unprovoked violent assault before fleeing the scene when police arrived. Holdsworths female accomplice Toni Ponting joins in the attack and tries to film it too! By now, the hunt should have realised that sabs rarely miss a camera angle. This time was no exception. With multiple victims and video evidence of the assault, the police were forced to act. The intoxicated woman was arrested on the spot, while the male assailant fled on foot into the depths of the Badminton Estate to evade capture and the police breathalyser. Toni Ponting being informed that she was to be arrested, she had been laughing with police right up to this moment. Toni Ponting continues her abuse through the windows even as police arrive on the scene. Sabs were later able to positively identify the perpetrators of the assault as the same individuals involved in operating the illegal drone. The male drone operator and attacker was revealed to be none other than Tony Holdsworth, a former huntsman and master of the Beaufort Hunt who retired in 2016, passing the role to the current huntsman, Matt Ramsden. Holdsworth is also listed as the Regional Organiser for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust and an adviser at “Hunting Kind,” a pro-hunt organisation headed by Ed Swales. Swales is perhaps best known for his recent, bizarre suggestion that fox hunters should be granted the same legal protections as ethnic minorities and other protected groups. Holdworths’ female accomplice, and the violent thug who attacked both sabs is Toni Ponting, a notorious member of the Beaufort Hunt with a history of assaults on opponents of fox hunting. Tony Holdsworth operated his illegal attack drone from deep inside the Badminton Estate, which is owned by Henry Somerset the 12th Duke of Beaufort, and with consent and support from the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt. Holdsworth continues his attack as the sab attempts to get back into the vehicle. Noticing his attack on sabs is being filmed he makes a failed desperate grab for the camera. Despite the serious and undeniable evidence of these crimes—including illegal hunting, endangerment of aircraft, theft, and assault—the police have shown little interest in holding the Beaufort Hunt to account. Ponting, Holdsworth, and their many accomplices are not mere supporters; they are key staff, riders, and members at the core of the hunt. This police inaction is hardly surprising; for decades, the authorities have often been complicit in wildlife crimes committed by the wealthy and powerful. In many cases, they’ve even actively supported hunts. Hunt Sabs have long since stopped expecting meaningful action from the police. Time and time again, it has become clear that we are the only ones standing between hunters and the hunted wildlife. Ponting launches an attack on a second sab who attempted to defuse the situation. A Wiltshire Hunt Sabs spokesperson commented: “What we are witnessing is an escalation in the violent and dangerous tactics that hunts will deploy to prevent the gathering of evidence of their many wildlife crimes. In failing to deal promptly and robustly with this incident police are giving the green light to hunts to use these dangerous tactics and are complicit in putting the public at risk. The wildlife and the public are both being put at risk from hunt criminality and police inaction, it is time the government closes the Hunting Act loopholes, and they must ensure that police everywhere enforce the law when it comes to these well-connected Organised Crime Groups”. Please support Wiltshire Hunt Sabs here paypalme/wiltshirehuntsabs and follow them on Facebook here www.facebook.com/wiltshirehuntsaboteurs. Get involved! Find out how you can be part of our campaign to Strengthen The Hunting Act Take Action Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2025 Hunt Saboteurs Association. All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from Hunt Saboteurs Association. Our mailing address is: BM HSA, London, WC1N 3XX, U.K. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe

FROM WILD JUSTICE — I LOVE THE IMAGES

Good morning! Today’s newsletter brings you the final three of a series of a dozen blogs about raptor persecution and its strong links to the driven grouse shooting industry. We're also asking you to sign another petition relating to rodenticides in Northern Ireland. Over 65,000 of you have now signed our petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting. Thank you. We need less than 200 names to hit 66,000, which is two-thirds of our target of 100k - the number we need to trigger a government debate on the issue. Since our last newsletter we’ve been busy. Chris, Ruth and some of our team, along with a very special guest, have been working on a project we think you'll enjoy which aims to raise awareness of our petition to ban driven grouse shooting – more on this soon. How low will they go? For now, we’ll share with you last three of our dozen blogs documenting examples of the persecution of raptors on, or close to, driven grouse moors. We’ve put together this series to highlight the lengths the criminals within the industry will go to in order to illegally kill birds of prey. NEW: A red herring (Hen Harrier) - click here. NEW: An unfair advantage - click here. NEW: Caught in the act (Short-eared Owl) - click here. A barbaric crime (Peregrine Falcon) – click here. Under the boot (Hen Harrier) – click here. A toxic environment – click here. Nowhere is safe (Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle) - click here. An ambush (Hen Harrier) - click here. A double whammy (Red Kite) - click here. Shooting a sleeping beauty (Golden Eagle) - click here. The indiscriminate persecutors (Merlin) - click here. Faking it: death by decoy (Hen Harrier) - click here. Other blogs: For a simple introduction to the issue, read What driven grouse shooting is - and why we want it banned: - click here. For information on how incidents like those detailed above impact the population dynamics of birds of prey, click here for Golden Eagles, here for Peregrine Falcons and here for Hen Harriers. Please help us keep spreading the word. The more people know about these crimes, the more people will take action to help prevent them in the future. Scroll down to the bottom of any of our recent blogs and you’ll see four icons – click any of these to share that blog on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter (X) or BlueSky. You can sign our petition, and share the link for it, by clicking here. Rodenticides Petition We'd also like to ask for your help on a related issue. Our friends in the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group (NIRSG) are running a petition calling for a ban on the possession of dangerous, raptor-killing pesticides, similar to the successful ban that's been in place in Scotland since 2005. NIRSG launched this petition in 2023 after the illegal poisoning of two, young White-tailed Eagles that were found dead, side by side, on Northern Ireland's only driven grouse moor at Glenwherry, in the Antrim Hills. The petition is close to reaching 50,000 signatures and as soon as that target is met, the NIRSG will present the petition to Minister Andrew Muir. We'd be very grateful if you could help the NIRSG reach this goal. Anyone can sign it, from anywhere in the world. The petition can be found here. Thank you for your ongoing support. We’ll be sharing an important and exciting announcement tomorrow, so watch this space! Thank you, Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 228th Wild Justice newsletter. This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action or a petition where you ticked a box. Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days). 9 Lawson St Raunds Wellingborough Northants NN9 6NG UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

ROB’S REACTION OF PROTECT THE WILD ON COUNTRY FILE’S TREATMENT TO THE HUNTING ‘GAME’

View this email in your browser Countryfile went EASY on hunting - here's the truth! The other week, Countryfile aired a 15-minute segment discussing hunting, marking 20 years since the ban was passed. They spoke to people from both sides of the debate, including hunters and those against the pastime. So, in case you missed it, I sat down to give an honest watch along to the show—and let’s just say, I wasn’t impressed. Watch here PS. Want to support our work? Check out the Protect the Wild shop! :) We have so many lovely items with all profits supporting our vital campaigning. Shop Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

RIGHT TO ROAM — AND ABOUT TIME WE DID —FROM PROTECT THE WILD

Can't see this message? View in a browser   The antidote to political despair is… Dear Roamers, Politics is pretty depressing right now. As a campaigner, I’m often asked, ‘what gives you hope?’. And the answer isn’t to ignore the bad stuff going on, or wish naively that things weren’t this way. The antidote to political despair is to take action. A veteran political organiser recently told me that if 100 MPs each received 10 letters from their constituents on the same issue, that issue would rocket to the top of the political agenda. There are now nearly 40,000 of you on our mailing list, so… that’s some political clout right there. Many of you have already written to your MP and shared their responses, giving us valuable insights on opinion inside Westminster. So if you haven’t yet written to your MP, this email is to encourage you. Please keep writing to your MPs about Right to Roam – because it works! You can find our template email, with links to your constituency access data, here. In our supporter survey last week (which you can still complete here), some of you mentioned you were unsure about the state of play with access reform, or said that you’d like to hear more about our behind-the-scenes parliamentary work. So without further ado: today’s newsletter is a political digest of everything that has been happening with the politics of access. What the parties pledged at the last election Spool back to last summer’s General Election campaign. We analysed the manifestos and policy documents of all the main parties running in England, and produced this assessment of their pledges on access to nature. Whilst the Tories unsurprisingly ruled out introducing a “universal right to roam”, the Green Party promised a “new English Right to Roam Act” modelled on Scotland’s laws, and the Lib Dems pledged they’d be “exploring a right to roam for waterways”. Labour’s manifesto promises on access were disappointingly unambitious – with the only concrete pledges being to create three new national forests and nine river walks. However, the party also promised to “improve responsible access to nature”, hinting at broader plans. The party had previously committed to introducing a comprehensive right to roam but backed down following aggressive lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union and the Country Land and Business Association. The politics of access since the election Since Labour won the election and formed a government, access reform has clearly not been at the top of their agenda – although we’ve got plans to change that this year. But we’ve been encouraged to see the Government announce two new policies recently. Firstly, that they will repeal the ridiculous 2031 deadline to register all historic rights of way. And secondly, that they’ll be reforming the duties of National Parks to include nature recovery. Both of these changes require ministers to pass primary legislation – a Bill of some kind. So when Labour introduces such a Bill, why not use it to make broader changes too – such as giving the public a right of responsible access to the countryside? We don’t want to give anyone false hope – but that seems to us like a good opportunity to work towards. Our parliamentary work since the election Since the election, we’ve continued to speak to ministers and their advisers, but we’ve also been working with supportive MPs. At the rally we held in Westminster during the Supreme Court case about wild camping rights on Dartmoor, we were pleased that several Labour and Lib Dem MPs came to speak, along with former Green MP Caroline Lucas. You can read some of what Phil Brickell, Labour MP for Bolton West and a champion of access rights, had to say here. We then worked with Phil and other Labour backbenchers who were keen to write to the Environment Secretary, Steve Reed. 30 Labour MPs and Peers signed a letter to the Secretary of State, expressing their support for a Scottish-style right of responsible access, and urging the government to publish an Access White Paper – essentially a public consultation on access reform. Earlier this month, we met with some of these MPs for a ‘Right to Roam roundtable’ in Westminster, along with representatives of other access groups. We’re encouraged about the level of support and it feels like momentum is gathering. So what’s next? We now need: MPs to ask questions in Parliament – what are the government’s plans to improve responsible access to nature, and will they champion a greater right to roam? MPs to hold a Westminster Hall debate on access reform. We need more MPs to help request that this debate be held. The Government to publish a consultation on access reform. It’s crucial that they hear calls for this from lots of MPs. How you can help: Please write to your MP with these three asks. You can simply copy and paste the three points above into an email to your MP – or better still, write your own email. Find your MP and their email address here. When you write to them, remember to include your address or postcode so they know you’re a constituent. And remember: the best antidote to political despair is action. FOR THE READING LIST… Right to Roam vs. Darwall: Last year, Country Life published an apologia by England's most notorious landowner, Alexander Darwall, explaining why he felt his legal attempts to revoke the right to wild camp on Dartmoor were justified. We thought it was pretty bogus. We asked for a right of reply – and, with the Supreme Court case underway, Country Life agreed. Right to Roam's Lewis Winks penned our response, which you can read here. See what you think but... we think it's decisive. Damien Gabet trespasses the length of England (!): In an extraordinary summer feat, travel writer Damien Gabet set out to hike the length of England, trespassing as he went. He interviewed advocates for the right to roam along the way and raised a chunk of change for the campaign. Many of you followed his journey on Instagram. Now he has penned this hilarious piece for Adventure.com about the journey. Check it out! LOCAL GROUPS RTR West Yorkshire are meeting next weekend on the 1st March for a positive trace litter pick and mini trespass. Meet up is just west of The New Inn off Carr Road (LS28 5RP; what3words: deeper.added.bats) and promises to conclude with a pint in the pub. Street parking is only around and about, so plan ahead. For more details get in touch at: righttoroamwestyorkshire@gmail.com. RTR Bristol are headed to an ancient woodland the following day, on Sunday 2nd March, where they'll be learning their mosses, lichens and fungi. Meet up is either Bristol Bus and Coach Station at 10.20am (to get the X7 at 10.30) or Warren Lane bus stop at 10.45am. Mostly flat, no barbed wire, estimated walk time around 3-4 hours. Onwards! Best wishes, Guy and the Right to Roam team ---------- For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved, check out our website here. Can you help keep us roaming? Head to ‘Donate’ here. MPs and access campaigners at our recent Right to Roam roundtable in Westminster. Take Action Visit our social accounts Check out our site   This email was sent from this site. If you no longer wish to receive this email, change your email preferences here.

FIGHT TO END BIRD SHOOTING STARTS HERE — FROM PROTECT THE WILD

The Fight to End Bird Shooting Starts Now – Will You Stand With Us? Most of us love birds—the ones that visit our gardens, the ones that arrive in summer, the ones we glimpse on mountaintops or marshes. Yet the shooting industry has spent decades convincing us that some birds don’t count. Pheasants, partridges, and grouse have been reduced to mere targets, their lives deemed expendable for the sake of ‘sport.’ But if we truly love birds, shouldn’t that mean all birds? At Protect the Wild, we say enough is enough. The bird shooting industry has been left unchecked for far too long—killing millions of birds, wiping out predators by the thousands, scarring landscapes, and devastating ecosystems, all so a privileged few can shoot for fun. That’s why we’re taking the fight to them. Over the next 10 months, we’re launching the most ambitious anti-shooting campaign ever: Building the ultimate website against bird shooting—a one-stop hub packed with facts, investigations, undercover footage, animations, and campaigns exposing this industry for what it really is. Creating powerful new social media platforms dedicated entirely to dismantling the arguments of the shooting lobby and bringing the truth to the public. Assembling a specialist team—undercover investigators, campaigners, researchers, and writers—all working to take this industry down. Shooting birds for fun is not normal. It’s cruel, senseless, and propped up by the mass slaughter of foxes, stoats, mountain hares, and other wildlife to protect the very birds that are later gunned down. We are making it our mission to turn bird shooting into a toxic, unacceptable relic of the past. But to do that, we need your help. This fight is massive, and it won’t come cheap. If you want to help us end bird shooting for good, please support our work by adopting a bird today. Together, we can expose this industry and bring its cruelty to an end. Adopt a Bird By adopting a bird with Protect the Wild, you’ll directly support our mission to end bird shooting and fund the vital work outlined above. Every adoption helps us fight harder, expose cruelty, and push for change. As a thank you, you’ll receive an exclusive Protect the Wild adoption pack, including a cuddly owlet, a glossy photo, and a fact sheet packed with information about the bird you’re helping to protect. Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD Covent Garden, London 71-75 Shelton Street United Kingdom Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

FROM PROTECT THE WILD

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Sabs disrupt a hare shoot on Banham Zoo's land TOM ANDERSON FEB 24 ∙ GUEST POST READ IN APP A joint effort by sabs from Norwich Hunt Saboteurs (NHS), South Norfolk Hunt Saboteurs (SNHS) and Norfolk/Suffolk Hunt Saboteurs (NSHS) was able to drastically limit the numbers killed in a hare shoot at Banham Zoo on 15 February. Meanwhile, the Zoological Society of East Anglia and Banham Zoo have confirmed that they did not give permission for shooting to take place on their land. The hunting of hares with dogs is illegal under the Hunting Act 2004 and legislation in 2022 made it easier for authorities to prosecute hare coursers and hunters. However, hare shooting is unfortunately still lawful in the UK, although the 80% decline in numbers of hares has led to calls for a ban on hare shooting during their February to September breeding season. Brown hares (Lepus Europaeus) were introduced to Britain by the Romans. The drastic decrease in the number of hares since the 19th century led to the hare being listed as a priority species in the 1994 UK Biodiversity Action Plan, but sadly this didn't lead to many legal protections for hares. The Born Free Foundation points out that a staggering "300,000 or more hares are shot each year on farmland and shooting estates, in the name of sport." "Countless lives were saved" On 15 February, despite this lack of legal protection, the direct action of the three sab groups managed to keep "the numbers [of hares] killed to a minimum". For much of the day the sabs were able to stop the killing altogether. However, the shooters began to lose their patience as the day drew to a close. According to NHS they "began recklessly firing shots at hares despite proximity with sabs." SNHS released this video of the sabs brave attempts to prevent the killing: Many of the hares weren't killed cleanly, and were left "with wounds still writhing in the field." Despite this, according to Norwich sabs: "Thanks to the actions of just a handful of sabs from across Norfolk, countless lives were saved. It's not unusual for a shoot such as this to number kill into the hundreds for one day. Despite their best efforts at intimidation, and then even firing within spitting distance of sabs, we stood our ground" Protect the Wild asked NSHS how successful the sabbing of the hare shoot had been. They replied: "We can't call the day a complete success because around 50 Hares were killed. However, what we know is that around 40 of those were killed on the one or two draws prior to our arrival. In the next two draws where sabs were on the field using their bodies to shield the Hares, none were killed. In the final draw the shooters resorted to firing so dangerously close to sabs in all directions they managed to shoot 10. These numbers demonstrate the impact sabs being present can make and saving just one life is a huge success." Norwich sabs published these graphic pictures of the many hares who did lose their lives. Hare shoot in Banham, 15 February 2025 Hare shoot in Banham, 15 February 2025 Hare shoot in Banham, 15 February 2025 Tip off your local sabs Several of the sab groups emphasised the importance of tip offs from members of the public. NSHS told Protect the Wild that tip offs are "often how we learn of these shoots as local people find themselves confronted with the harrowing screams of wounded Hares. People feel helpless so turn to their local sab groups." "Just as cruel" as hunting with dogs Hare shoots like the one in Banham are cruel, just like other forms of hunting. According to NSHS: "Running terrified for your life and dying slowly and painfully at the hands of a gunman is just as cruel as in the jaws of a Hound. We simply must do more to protect our beloved Brown Hare from persecution in all its forms." In Scotland, the government has already moved to protect some hares. In 2020, the Scottish government in Holyrood made it a crime to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure Scotland's mountain hares without a license. Wildlife Protection charities are campaigning for similar protection for endangered mountain hares in the north of England too. However, its not just mountain hares that need protection. We need to protect all hares from cruel hare shoots like the one at Banham, considering the dramatic drop in the number of hares in the UK over the last century. The government needs to act to protect hares and impose a ban on hare shooting, at the very least during their breeding season. Until then, all we've got is direct action to prevent this cruel spot. But the hunt sabs success in saving lives on 15 February shows that our actions can save lives. Direct action can often be very effective when legal protection is lacking. And if you hear about a hare shoot being organised in your area, don't forget to tip off your local sab group. Check out Protect the Wild's factfile on the brown hare. Support Norfolk/Suffolk Hunt Saboteurs' fuel and equipment fund here. You can donate to Norwich Hunt Saboteurs here or South Norfolk Hunt Saboteurs here. A guest post by Tom Anderson Journalist for Protect the Wild Subscribe to Tom SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2025 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

HUNTS EXPOSED FROM PROTECT THE WILD

View this email in your browser Hunts Exposed: Police Raids & Miliband’s Home Invasion! This week on Rob’s Wild Show, we’re exposing just how broken Britain’s hunting laws still are in 2025. 🔥 Police raided the Cottesmore Hunt—seizing weapons, quad bikes, and even their terriers. 🏡 Foxhounds ran loose on Ed Miliband’s property, proving yet again that hunts have zero control over the hounds 🌿 And shockingly, Natural England has been allowing hunting on protected wildlife sites. It’s been 20 years since the Hunting Act came into force, yet illegal hunting continues. But public pressure is growing—Labour has pledged to act, and we need to hold them to it. Watch here Want to support our work? Whether you're donating or shopping with us, every contribution fuels our vital campaigning. Thanks to our generous supporters, we can keep fighting for wildlife. Every pound makes a difference—thank you! Donate Shop Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

FROM BUMBLEBEE CONSERVATION TRUST

view online Bumblebee Conservation Trust logo Montage of images including bumblebees, people and flowers February is often known as the gateway to spring. While still a winter month and a bit chilly it brings with it the first signs of seasonal change, like beautiful crocuses and hazel catkins. Spring is just around the corner! As the days slowly grow longer, now is the perfect time to brush up on your bumblebee ID skills and get ready for the season ahead. Soon, queen bumblebees will be emerging in search of food and nesting sites. By learning to identify the different species now, you'll be ready to spot and support these precious pollinators. Do you know how bumblebees keep warm? 🌡️ Queen bumblebee basking on a mossy bank Insects are cold-blooded animals which means that, unlike us, they cannot control their own temperatures. They need the sun to warm them up when its cool and they need shade to cool them down when its hot! So how do bumblebees, such as emerging queens in spring, warm up to take flight? Well, on a cool day, a bumblebee can raise their body temperature by dislocating their wings and shivering their flight muscles to reach the snug 30°C they need to fly. If you're lucky enough to witness this it will be accompanied with a loud buzz. Watch emerging queen vibrate her wings 📽️ News - UK Government ends cycle of authorising banned, bee-harming pesticide Last month, there was welcome news for bumblebees as the UK Government rejected an application to use a banned, bee-harming pesticide on sugar beet crops in England this year. We now call on the UK Government to publish the long-overdue UK National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides which could be used to set meaningful targets to reduce pesticide use across the UK. Bumblebee on yellow flower Bee the Change - go pesticide FREE 🙌 Bumblebee on sunflower with image of guide inset to the right Leaving weed killers and bug sprays on the shelf is one of the best things you can do to help bumblebees. Using pesticides can directly harm the bumblebees and other pollinators visiting your patch by killing them directly or affecting their ability to find food and reproduce. Pesticides can also indirectly impact bumblebees by destroying the wildflowers that they need to feed on. Download our guide to discover some simple, practical ways you can make the switch to gardening organically and in balance with nature. Already gone pesticide-free? Share this resource with work colleagues, friends and family Download your FREE guide! 💻 How to ID the UK's 8 common bumblebees Two Red-tailed bumblebees on a pink flower There are 24 different species of bumblebee in the UK. At first glance these large, round and hairy charismatic insects all look the same, but some have very different features! With knowledge of which features to focus on, and a little practice, you’ll soon start to tell them apart. Let's start with the UK's eight most common bumblebees you are likely to see in your garden or community space. Check out this fun, five minute bumblebee ID video to get started⬆️ And then head over to our Bee the Change page and download your FREE 'Big 8' bumblebee ID guide ⬇️ The Big 8 bumblebee ID guide 🐝 Bee ID pack Looking to further your bumblebee ID skills? Our Bee ID pack is the perfect resource! Full of information for nature lovers, from beginners to experts, this pack includes our UK Bumblebees poster, car sticker, ‘What’s that bumblebee?’ guide, bumblebee-friendly flower seeds, and an ‘enamel’ badge. Image shows poster, seeds and ID guide Bee ID mug Want a fun and practical way to learn bumblebee ID? Our 'bumblebee big 8' mug features the eight most common UK species of bumblebees, making it the perfect alternative to a traditional guide! Whenever you're enjoying your morning coffee or tea, you can brush up on your bee ID skills while supporting bumblebee conservation. Get yours today and sip while you spot! Bee Id mug showing 4 bees next to plant Coming soon . . the Hairy footed-flower bee Female Hairy footed-flower bee in flight above purple flower This species is one of the first solitary bees to emerge in spring and people often confuse them for small bumblebees, although their quick darting flight motion is a good way to tell them apart. Seen from February through to June, they are frequent visitors to lungworts, primroses, dead-nettles and comfrey. Can you ID this solitary bee? Every year we receive lots of enquiries from people who find these bees inside their homes, despite all the windows and doors being closed. This is usually because the bees have nested in the soft mortar around the chimney stack and accidentally end up falling down the chimney. If this happens you can gently usher the bees outside again so that they can complete their lifecycle. Hairy footed-flower bee 🌸 Did you know you can subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow our projects on X: @nikkigammans @BuzzingWales @BuzzingShrill @BuzzingScotland X icon in blue and white Facebook icon in blue and white Instagram icon in blue and white Threads icon in blue and white YouTube icon in blue and white Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Registered Charity No: 1115634 / Scottish Charity No: SC042830. © 2025 Bumblebee Conservation Trust. All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you are already a member, subscribed via our website, an event or when becoming a volunteer. We hope you enjoy reading it! Registered address: International House, 109-111 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JA; Correspondence address: Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Beta Centre, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling FK9 4NF Unsubscribe

THREE SAD STORIES FROM LEGAL JUSTICE

Good morning! Today’s newsletter brings you the next three of a series of a dozen blogs about raptor persecution in relation to the driven grouse shooting industry. Our petition calling for a ban of driven grouse shooting has now reached 64,000 signatures. We’re almost two-thirds of the way to 100,00 people calling for a ban – the number we need to trigger a government debate on the issue. We’ve got this far together, with the efforts of you and organisations in the sector - like the RSPB, Rewilding Britain and Peta - helping the petition surge towards 100k. We need another c36k signatures (35,470 at the time of writing this!) before May 22nd this year in order to reach our target. We’re feeling positive about the outcome but it’s by no means ‘in the bag’, so please continue to help by spreading the word. How low will they go? Today we bring you the next three out of a dozen blogs documenting examples of the persecution of raptors. This series demonstrates the depths criminals associated with driven grouse shooting will go to in order to illegally kill birds of prey. These are all cases that would’ve gone undetected, if it wasn’t for investigators, field workers, police and members of the public. Think about how many other horrific crimes must remain unseen, being committed secretly and under the radar. NEW: A barbaric crime – click here. NEW: Under the boot – click here. NEW: A toxic environment – click here. Nowhere is safe (Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle) - click here. An ambush (Hen Harrier) - click here. A double whammy (Red Kite) - click here. Shooting a sleeping beauty (Golden Eagle) - click here. The indiscriminate persecutors (Merlin) - click here. Faking it: death by decoy (Hen Harrier) - click here. We'll be adding to this list over the next couple of weeks. Other blogs: For a simple introduction to the issue, read What driven grouse shooting is - and why we want it banned: - click here. For information on how incidents like those detailed above impact the population dynamics of birds of prey, click here for Golden Eagles, here for Peregrine Falcons and here for Hen Harriers. Keep on nudging! Every signature added to our petition nudges us a little closer to our target. Can you please keep the nudging going? If you know anyone who doesn’t know about driven grouse shooting – friends, family, a friendly face in the pub – could you share a blog with them? Scroll down to the bottom of any of our recent blogs and you’ll see four icons – click any of these to share that blog on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter (X) or BlueSky. You can add your name or share the petition directly too – click here. We’ve made great progress but we can’t stop now! Thank you. Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 227th Wild Justice newsletter. This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action or a petition where you ticked a box. Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days). 9 Lawson St Raunds Wellingborough Northants NN9 6NG UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

THIS MAY EXPLAIN WHY I PASTE POSTS — ALL ABOUT WILDLIFE AND MY ROOTS

Great Western Trains still run and at 18.04 we are on the Cathedrals Express from Reading General Main Line Station heading west and now, heading in the right direction. Our destination is Hereford where I will be renewing my memories from over many decades. Two years ago I spent about ten days in and around the city — my home city — and it impressed me. So much so, I decided to spend my birthday weekend with friends and family there. My acquaintance with GWR was in the days of the power of steam. An affliction that I still have. I am not alone, of course. I can easily remember working at Ledbury Station as a junior porter to witness close at hand the demise of British Rail. The few staff were heading for tending their gardens and annoying their wives. One employee, much older than his years, was suffering by having worked on the banker that pushed good trains up through Ledbury Tunnel into Colwall where another crew on another loco pushed them through and past the Malverns. I was allowed to stand on the footplate and experience the smoke, feel the power, and taste the coal dust. No wonder people got sick. This last paragraph brings out clues into my past and this is why the route into Hereford was chosen. Flight into Gatwick and then by train. It was going well to start with until there was an obstruction on the line. We waited, we pondered and when it look like an ultimatum we took the employee’s advice for a circuitous route to Reading General. We were booked via Newport and other points very Welsh but with the line being blocked we went for this GWR Cathedrals Express via Oxford and other places direct to Hereford. The announcements were reminders of many past journeys — Moretón-in-Marsh, more than one Worcester, more than one Malvern, Colwall and Ledbury where I hung out of the window gleaning in the memories. The next three stations, that were of my past, are only ghostly to me now. They don’t exist in the era they were created in. Maybe adapted to todays’ need and a bit of a new life. The power of steam and the trains into London Paddington directed, even pulled me, to a life beyond and so different from where my roots and memories still lie. I have moved on. There is some irony in sitting on this train. On-board service brought a can of San Miguel, brewed in Madrid and of Tribute Pale Ale brewed in St Austell neither of which would be my choice. A bag of crisps each is a fine way to dine out. Tomorrow is another day. The names of stations announced are like memory trips and that is a favourite place to go — its all there in the memory bank. Finally, having heard and read about rail strikes, inadequate services, late arrivals and so on. This has been an experience. We chatted to delayed passengers and had wonderful conversations. All staff whether at stations, on platforms when we needed help, to a man or woman they were bloody good. So helpful and friendly and gave us what we need to know. Great interactions that reassured me of people’s kindness.”

POLAR BEARS AND THE FUR TRADE WITH THE WWF FROM PROTECT THE WILD

View this email in your browser Imagine if WWF actually supported the killing of Polar Bears.. Imagine if WWF—the organization that asks you to adopt a polar bear and buy their merchandise—actually supported the killing of them. Well, you don’t have to imagine. It’s happening. This was a story I couldn’t ignore. I felt compelled to uncover the details of WWF’s dirty secret—the one they don’t want you to know about. 👉 Watch now and see the truth for yourself. Watch here Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

JEREMY CLARKSON — AND HIS “RIGHT’ TO KILL AND TO HATE BADGERS.

View this email in your browser This man would hate it if you stood up for Badgers Jeremy Clarkson has made it clear—he hates badgers. He blames them for everything from broken tractors to the state of British farming. But here’s the real issue: while Clarkson rants about badgers, our government is quietly slaughtering them by the tens of thousands. Right now, the badger cull is one of the most senseless and cruel wildlife extermination programs in modern British history. Over 230,000 badgers have already been killed, and if the government gets its way, thousands more will die—despite overwhelming scientific evidence that culling does not stop bovine TB in cattle. Clarkson’s rants might be loud, but we can be louder. Our official petition to end the badger cull is gaining momentum, but we need your voice to reach the 100k target and force a debate in Parliament. 🔴 Will you take just 30 seconds to sign and share our petition? Every signature brings us closer to stopping this brutal, unscientific massacre. Let’s show the government that the British public stands for science, compassion, and real solutions—not outdated scapegoating. Sign the petition And do you know what would wind up Clarkson even more? Our Adopt a Badger initiative lets you directly support our vital work protecting British wildlife and fighting against the cruel, unscientific badger cull. By adopting a badger today, you’ll be funding our projects and campaigning for stronger legal protections, making sure badgers have a future in the UK—no matter what Clarkson or the government thinks. 🦡 Adopt a Badger today and help fund real wildlife protection Adopt a Badger For just £3 a month—less than the price of a café coffee—you can help protect badgers and receive a beautiful adoption pack showcasing our vital work. Plus, you'll get this adorable eco-friendly badger toy as a thank-you! We rely entirely on the generosity of people like you to continue our fight for British wildlife. Every adoption makes a real difference, and we’re truly grateful for your support! 💚 Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

ANOTHER TERRIFIC & INFORMATIVE POST FROM PROTECT THE WILD

View this email in your browser 20 years since the Hunting ban came into force, we must keep fighting! Twenty years ago today, the Hunting Act came into force, intended to put an end to the hunting of wild mammals with packs of hounds. However, if you've been following us—whether for years or just a week—you'll know that this so-called 'ban' has failed. Wildlife continues to be relentlessly hunted and killed across the country. Hunts continue to wreak havoc on communities, assaulting the brave people who try and stand in their way. And the poor horses and hounds caught up in it all are often mistreated and neglected, treated as mere tools in their sick game. And for the best part of a decade now groups like us have been campaigning 24/7 for things to change. It's been my obsession to do everything within my power to end hunting and I firmly believe we are just a few years away from this becoming a reality. I didn’t just want to use this email to remind you that wildlife is still being hunted—we all know that by now. Instead, I want to reassure you that change is happening, and the pressure on hunting is stronger than ever. Let’s take a look at the progress we’ve made in the fight to end hunting over the past few years: Released two major undercover investigations exposing the shooting of hunting hounds and the work of terriermen in procuring foxes to be hunted - leading to national press coverage and a slot on ITV primetime news Produced several hard-hitting animations exposing everything from the use of bagged foxes to the lie that is 'trail hunting' and pressuring landowners like the MoD to end hunting on their land (which they now have). The animations have been viewed over 20 million times in the last 12 months alone. Published 2 extensive annual reports detailing the facts and figures concerning the hunting of wildlife resulting in more national press coverage Given grants and equipment to literally dozens of activist groups across the country to help people monitor and sabotage hunts taking place Helped push major landowners like the National Trust and Forestry England to ban hunting on their land after sustained pressure over many years including a debate forced by our Govt petition passing the 100,000 threshold. Exposed celebrities, politicians and organisations that have shown support for hunting Written hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces concerning hunting which have been viewed in the millions Built an online following of over 1 million people across our socials with highly engaging content pushed out every single day to keep the public informed Released several projects undermining hunting such as: bloodbusiness.info and rehomethehounds.info Silenced the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance on national radio, dismantling the smokescreen of 'trail hunting' Donate to Protect the Wild :) Are you able to help us do even more and end hunting asap? If you've read this far, I hope you’re feeling inspired by the work we’re doing to bring an end to hunting. I can tell you that we have three major new projects in the pipeline—each targeting hunting from a different angle—and they’re set to launch in the coming months. Trust me when I say that my team and I at Protect the Wild are working relentlessly to make sure the hunts' days are well and truly numbered. This is where I have to ask for your help. Thousands of you have powered us to this point right now. But we now need to keep pushing as we take on the final stretch of the mission to end hunting once and for all. I have bold ambitions for the future of Protect the Wild and the challenges we can take on as an organisation. I’m incredibly proud that we’re recognised as a radical force in this space—unafraid to call out wrongdoing and hold anyone to account. We stand firmly against those who kill wildlife for sheer pleasure, and we won’t hesitate to take the fight to them. Let me tell you that the hunters and shooters are more rattled than ever before. They hate the fact an organisation like Protect the Wild exists because we don't pull any punches and we're exposing these animal abusers for what they are. If you support our mission and the work we’re doing, and you're in a position to help us go further, please consider donating just a couple of pounds a month. Even £1 or £2—an amount you might hardly notice—can make a huge difference to an organisation like ours, allowing us to continue fighting for change. In the coming months we will be: - Producing a first of its kind report on the impact of hunting on hounds and a comprehensive overview of every single incident of hound neglect/mistreatment - Releasing the third edition of our hunting report detailing the numbers of wild animals being persecuted by hunts - Launching a game-changing mini site to expose the havoc inflicted by hunts By donating to us or adopting an animal with Protect the Wild you're helping us fund all of these projects that will push for an end to the hunting of wildlife for good. Donate to Protect the Wild :) Copyright © 2025 PROTECT THE WILD LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: PROTECT THE WILD LTD 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, London WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.