THIS IS THE LATTER PART OF THE LEGAL JUSTICE NEWSLETTER
Wye, Wye, Wye?: hardly a day goes by without there being some news about threats to the aquatic freshwater environment through over abstraction or pollution. Wild Justice has exchanged legal letters with the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and Natural England over what they should be doing to protect the wildlife of the River Wye. We've made it clear that legal action might follow if they do not up their game - see our blog here.
Raptor persecution and Hen Harrier Day: we can report that the Raptor Forensics Fund that we established back in 2020 has been used to support an investigation leading to the conviction of a second wildlife criminal - a second gamekeeper - see here for details. We're pleased to see this fund, established at Wild Justice's initiative and supported by raptor workers (but not, so far, by the shooting community) is helping to speed up invetigations of wildlife crime, some of which lead to criminal convictions. Wild Justice's Mark Avery was interviewed by The Bunker Podcast about the general issue of raptor persection on grouse moors - click here to listen. Looking ahead, we're talking to our friends in Hen Harrier Action about plans for an in-person, on the ground, Hen Harrier Day event in August 2022. Wild Justice organised a Hen Harrier Day event in Derbyshire in 2019 with speeches, music and lots of fun - see here for some details - but because of Covid the last two years have been online events - see 2021's event online here. It would be good to be able to meet up in person again but our plans are at a very early stage - we'll be making decisions over the next few weeks.
Hare coursing: we were pleased to see a recent DEFRA announcement on measures to clamp down further on the illegal activity of hare coursing. Wild Justice has played a small supportive role, working with the police but also with other organisations to bring this about - click here.
Coming soon: we're hoping to meet up with Waitrose soon to talk to them about the lead levels in their game meat (click here for details of analyses carried out before Christmas) and to tell them of future tests we plan for their meat. Next week we'll tell you about how you could find out a bit more about glyphosate levels - in your own body. We think of it as the 'Taking the p*ss' study. Thank you to all of you who have highlighted concerns about glyphosate use to your local authorities already (click here - although this list is already out of date).
A petition: Woodcock are lovely birds but you can shoot them for 'sport'. Woodcock breeding numbers in the UK are declining for a variety of reasons and shooting in winter may be one of them. This petition on the UK Parliament website - click here - calls for a ban on shooting. We would probably have worded this petition differently but it does highlight an important issue. The government response is feeble, and simply because of that we would invite you to have a look at the petition and see whether you want to support it. Even obviously pro-shooting organisations, such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, point out that shooting early in the 'open' season may affect UK breeding birds, even if most of the Woodcock shot in the UK are winter visitors from far to the east of the UK where the populations are thought (but not known in any great detail) to be stable. DEFRA should be considering changes to the shooting season for this bird as a measure to protect our UK breeding population and your signature mght help them do that.
Protecting the Swanscombe Peninsula: it's important to protect existing sites that are rich in wildlife, and many of them are under repeated threat from development. One person's wildlife site may look to others like the ideal location for a housing development, a warehouse, or in this case a theme park! And the potential developers often have a pile of money to progress their case. Yesterday, a coalition of groups, led by Buglife, launched a crowdfunder to raise a mere £10,000 to do the legal work to prepare to defend this site in a coming Planning Inspectorate examination of the proposed development on a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Wild Justice supports this campaign and you can chip in to help fund the necessary legal work yourself - click here to see why financial support is needed. Thank you!
Your cheques in the post: thank you to everyone who donates to Wild Justice - donations are our sole source of financial support. We have our own running costs which include website hosting, public liability insurance, postage, printing, newsletter hosting, membership fees of Wildlife and Countryside Link, subscribing to some publications and newsletters, accountants' fees and we have a small number off part-time helpers who provide essential administrative support. All of that adds up to around £20,000/year. And on top of that we then take legal challenges and campaign for wildlife. Thank you for your moral and financial support. You'll notice that we sometimes invite you to support the conservation work of other organisations - that's quite unusual, but then we aren't the standard model of conservation organisation, are we? We'll continue to highlight the campaigns, petitions and legal cases of others alongside our own projects and work.
We often end this newsletter by saying that you can support us financially through PayPal, bank transfers or by sending us a cheque in the post. Sometimes it's said that cheques are hardly used these days but that isn't true. Last year, donations of over £26,000 arrived in the post. Thank you! And we notice that some of those donors are one-off and others are regular - we thank you all. This is a general 'thank you' but if you do send us a cheque we will thank you by email or through the post if you give us your details - maybe on the back of the cheque. And we don't keep your details (why would we?) so if you send us multiple cheques please give us your contact details each time so that we can say thank you. We like saying thank you.
Thank you! That's it for now.
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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