I LOVE A POND - STORY IN THE TIMES NEWSPAPER

I smiled this morning. In today’s TIMES a beautiful photograph of a pond! Even ‘iconic’ as the pond, like many others, were filled in. The one in the photo has been restored.

There is therefore some news on a blood soaked Monday morning. It’s in THE TIMES if you want to see the photo.

Good news to start the day: An ancient pond in Bodham, Norfolk has become the latest ghost pond to be restored to its ecosystem that was last active decades ago. After the Second World War farmers across the country tended to fill in ancient ponds to grow more crops. Professor Carl Sayer, from University College London, is part of a ten-year-old project to restore the ponds that were filled in by farmers over the past two centuries and finds them by using old maps from 1830 onwards.

 

“They are like time capsules,” he said. “It’s this amazing layer of mud, a metre to two metres down. And it’s so quick.” They have shown in a laboratory that the ancient seeds still sprout, and seen in the field what that means. “You just have to dig the hole in September, you’ll have plants by March, and it will be absolutely full by late summer.”

FOLLOWING ON FROM THE EXTRACT FROM THE TELEGRAPH - PROTECT THE WILD HAVE CONTINUED THE DISCUSSION

 Wallace has a history of protecting hunts from his time at the Ministry of Defence, of course. He previously refused to do anything about hunts like the notorious Royal Artillery (RAH) which is utterly dependent on access to MoD land like Salisbury Plain. In fact in December 2022 he terminated a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding with activists on the RAH's behalf. ITV's Rupert Evelyn quoted Wallace's 'reasons' (which used the same wearily familiar terminology) and which again missed the point that his accusations include the very same things that sabs and monitors level at hunts: "The defence secretary cited ‘security concerns as well the behaviour of protesters and their attire which is intimidating to other users’.”

Why go on the attack now?

So Wallace, like many other members of the current government, supports hunting. He’d kept it hidden to an extent, but the gloves are now clearly off.

But why launch his attack now?

That is easily explained: the Conservatives have just been thumped in several by-elections, they are on course to heavily lose next year's General Election, and - which is the main point here - they are desperately scrabbling around for what they consider to be the safe 'countryside' vote.

Wallace is not the only one looking to trigger the apparently aggrieved countryfolk who are supposedly looking for an MP who supports their fever dreams about sabs and monitors (and beavers, badgers, and birds of prey). Other Conservatives have dropped the pretence of caring about wildlife and the environment and launched a new rightwing pressure group which - in terms of wildlife legislation - wants to send the UK back to Victorian times. 

Called Conservative Friends of the Countryside (CFC), its members include the same vociferous pro-hunt and pro-shooting MPs that have long spoken as one with the Countryside Alliance and BASC (the shooting lobbyists) and who in the last twelve months have derailed Parliamentary debates on snares and on shooting Woodcock (see “Through the looking glass with the shooting lobby”). Prominent loudmouth Sir Bill Wiggin, MP for North Herefordshire for example, wants the ban on foxhunting overturned, calling the Hunting Act “class war”. Another founder member is Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Old Etonian MP for the Cotswolds, who is an outspoken shooting campaigner with close ties to BASC and who in July was calling on Ministers to overturn the decision to withdraw General Licence 43 for shoots releasing pheasants on special protection areas. (SSSIs). Little wonder the Fieldsports Channel (a YouTube feed devoted to killing wildlife) dub Clifton-Brown “our unofficial minister for shooting”.

Also on the committee of CFC is George Bowyer, formerly of the Fitzwilliam Hunt and chair of Vote-OK, a lobby group which tries to get pro-hunting MPs elected, and Amanda Anderson, former PR and ‘public face’ of the Moorland Association, a group of grouse shoot owners who’s Director resigned just this week, days before being charged with the illegal burning of his own moorland.

CFC is calling for continuing the burning of peatland (of course); a halt in the release of beavers (remarkable eco-engineers that increase biodiversity wherever they live); continuing the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides (who wouldn’t want to wipe out pollinators when there’s a short-term profit to be made?); and stopping a ban on imports of hunting trophiesfrom endangered animals (any apparent restriction on the rights of shooters is a line these people don’t want crossed).

Wallace and CFC aren’t the only die-hards on manoeuvres though. Just last month another ‘hardcore’ right-wing anti-wildlife pressure group tried to make its mark and flopped in front of an unimpressed public. Billing itself as "a new political party committed to forcing Westminster to respond to the needs of rural communities", the wannabe politicos at Rural Reaction (or Rural Reactionaries as they will surely come to be known) say that "for rural voters their relationship with the Conservative Party is like a bad marriage".

They are attempting to tap into the same supposedly populist vote that Wallace and CFC is apparently hoping to woo. But the stark reality for both the lumpen Wallace, the anachronistic CFC, and the soon-to-disappear Rural Reaction, though, is that a majority of voters EVERYWHERE want out of their dismal 13-year marriage to the enviornment-bashing Conservatives.

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I HAVE EXTRACTED THIS ABOUT BEN BRADSHAW FROM PROTECT THE WILD

 

Ben Wallace, the belligerent and unloveable Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston North, has been all over the media this week after yet another attack on hunt sabs and monitors.

Writing in the increasingly hysterical Daily Telegraph, Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence until he resigned in August to 'invest in the parts of life' he claims to have neglected (which perhaps included a writing career supporting bloodsports), lays into the “sabs and self-appointed monitors" who he says "trespass, threaten, and thump across the land".

It's a startlingly poor piece of writing which editors presumably weren't given the chance to look at. If they had they might have anticipated that while the piece was supposed to highlight lawlessness in the UK - especially amongst activists - it would actually feed hundreds of social media posts happily picking out sentences like "we should all be worried about the policing [of hunts]", “wherever you find the hunts, you will find thuggery in tow”, and "the police stand by and regularly do nothing" and turn them against the very hunts the author appears to want to protect.

THE MAMMALS BILL FROM PROTECT THE WILD

Hunting of Mammals Bill

Commissioned by Protect the Wild and prepared by lawyers at Advocates for Animals, we are campaigning for the Hunting of Mammals Bill to become law. This comprehensive piece of legislation, which would become the Hunting of Mammals Act when passed, would spell the end of fox hunting in England and Wales.

Our legislation ensures that there are no grey areas: if you intentionally or recklessly hunt a mammal using one or more dogs, you are breaking the law and will be prosecuted. This is different to the current law, which – as we have previously explained – is all about intent. Hunting recklessly can include:

“whether the person failed to take reasonable steps to control a dog which is hunting a wild mammal,

whether the person took such steps as were reasonable in all the circumstances to avoid hunting a wild mammal,

whether reasonable efforts are made to control a dog which a reasonable person would consider, in the circumstances, is likely to be hunting a wild mammal…”

Under this legislation, if a judge was doing their job properly, a hunt would find it very difficult to walk from court without a conviction. This reckless clause will also ensure that hunts get convicted not just for hunting foxes, but for killing family pets, for worrying livestock, for trespassing on railway lines, and for causing havoc on busy roads.

Enforcement powers

Under the Hunting of Mammals Bill, police would have powers to search a person or a vehicle, as well as any devices that a person owns, such as a mobile phone. As we saw with the case of notorious hunter Ollie Finnegan, Leicestershire Police’s searching of his phone provided crucial evidence, forcing him to plead guilty. Finnegan bragged about hunting a “brace” of foxes in incriminating WhatsApp messages. The police’s actions were a one-off, though, and we don’t usually see hunters’ phones or computers being seized to search for evidence. The new legislation would make this a more routine police practice, and would give them powers to enter hunters’ homes in order to gather evidence.

The law would also give a local authority in England or Wales the power to begin prosecution proceedings for any offence under this Act.

Hunts can be prosecuted, not just individuals

A key part of our proposed legislation is to ensure that hunting organisations themselves are prosecuted for hunting foxes. Currently only individual hunt staff – usually the huntsman – are prosecuted for criminal activities of the whole hunt. Since the Hunting Act came into force in 2005, we have only ever seen one company, the Heythrop Hunt Ltd in December 2012, being prosecuted. The hunt pleaded guilty to four charges of illegally hunting with foxes, but the case was only successful because the prosecution was brought by a persistent RSPCA, not by the police and CPS. Since then, as far as Protect the Wild is aware, there have been no other successful attempts to prosecute a hunt as a whole entity.

Under the legislation, both the organisation and relevant individuals, such as company directors, secretaries and other officers, as well as the usual hunt staff on the ground, are liable to a prison sentence, a fine, or both. On top of this, the convicting court can confiscate an individual’s dog or horse used to carry out a hunting offence, and it can seize vehicles. If it sees fit, the court can also disqualify an individual from working with or using animals for any purpose, including hunting. This would, effectively put criminal huntsmen out of a job with future hunts. Under the current Hunting Act, all too often we see convicted huntsmen skipping from one hunt to another with impunity.

Prosecuting land owners

Like the Hunting Act, the Hunting of Mammals Bill has a provision for the prosecution of landowners if they knowingly permit trail hunting or real hunting on their land, or if they own a dog that has been used by hunters.

Until now, there has only been one attempted prosecution of landowners under the Hunting Act, in early 2023. The case was dropped against Duncan and Verity Drewett due to a series of apparent errors by Wiltshire Police and Wessex CPS.

When all hunting loopholes are removed from the legislation, we would see more attempts to prosecute landowners, because unlike now, cases that go to court are likely to be successful.

Our proposed Hunting of Mammals Bill can be made a reality, but we need all individuals to make their voices heard. Realistically, Protect the Wild is pessimistic that this current Tory government will make any efforts to amend (or scrap) the current Hunting Act or would pass more robust legislation. The older generation of Tory politicians with a desire for bloodlust are either retiring or dying, and younger, though, and more wildlife-friendly ministers will no doubt take their place – but more importantly, governments change and policies change with them.

Hunting is an archaic bloodsport that has no place in modern society. Younger generations in England and Wales won’t stand for men in red coats getting their kicks out of such brutality. Fox hunting will be consigned to the history books – we have no doubt about that – but we all need to work together to make that happen as fast as possible. Together we can end fox hunting for good.

To read the Hunting of Mammals Bill, click here.

To sign our petition calling for a proper hunting ban through the implementation of the Hunting of Mammals Bill, click here.

PROTECT THE WILD. CAN WE END FOX HUNTING AND OTHER HUNTING FOR EVER

Week in, week out, Protect the Wild reports on foxes being murdered, hunt staff harassing monitors or being violent towards them, hounds causing havoc on public roads, and more. Most hunts get away with all of this with total impunity. Why? Because of exemptions and loopholes written into the Hunting Act 2004 as it passed through Parliament.

But we have a solution, and we need your help to make it happen.

The majority of campaigner groups and organisations – including big names like the League Against Cruel Sports, RSPCA, PETA and Animal Aid – are calling for the Hunting Act to be strengthened. Protect the Wild also used to campaign for this; it’s why we were initially founded as Keep the Ban.

But we have changed our stance, and are campaigning for a much bigger outcome. We don’t want to reform the Hunting Act; we want it scrapped completely and replaced with a new law: the Hunting of Mammals Bill. Inspired by Scotland, which recently passed its own Hunting With Dogs Act, we know that legislative change is possible.

Protect the Wild argues that we need a multi-pronged approach in order to abolish hunting once and for all. We need watertight new legislation, which we will go into below, but we also need pro-wildlife politicians in government to make such legislation pass.

Why not strengthen the Hunting Act?

We see time and time again how hunt staff get away with hunting under the guise that they’re carrying out a lawful activity known as trail hunting (which is where packs follow an artificially laid scent trail instead of a fox). Whether the police actually believe this is the case or not, it gives forces and landowners the excuse not to take action against hunts. And even if the police do decide to investigate and prosecute a hunt, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) then needs to prove that the hunter in question set out to actually kill a fox that day. This requirement to prove intent makes convictions hard to come by. Because of this, the CPS drops cases when it feels the likelihood of conviction is low.

Loopholes such as these were written into the Hunting Act by pro-hunt members of Parliament. Protect the Wild argues that these loopholes and exemptions have changed a straightforward piece of legislation banning the hunting of wild mammals with hounds into something far more uncertain and malleable.

Campaigning for the Hunting Act to be strengthened will give the same pro-hunting politicians the opportunity once again to ensure that the law will remain tenuous. We can not give them the chance to derail animal welfare legislation yet again.

FROM RIGHT TO ROAM

 FROM ‘RIGHT TO ROAM’

Dear Roamers,
 

We hope you're doing well. In this newsletter we're letting you know about our most recent event on the Anglo-Scottish border, our next event, 'Landscapes of Health' later this month and our fundraising push to keep the campaign going.

Read on to hear more…

 

Borderlands

 

On the 24 September we led a group of Right to Roam supporters through England to meet supporters from Scotland at the Anglo-Scottish border. It was a powerful moment for the campaign. We were there to learn from those involved in the Land Reform Act 2003 which gave people in Scotland the Right to Roam. It was an important reminder that only 20 years ago Scotland enshrined the Right to Roam in law. At the border Andy Wightman handed over our recently published Right to Roam Bill for England, symbolically representing that we can follow Scotland's lead. And we will.

As we stood on the Scots Dyke at the border, we did the hokey cokey, one leg in England and one leg in Scotland, it highlighted the bizarre fact that just over the border in Scotland people have the Right to Roam, and in England we don't. Sceptics of the Campaign in England often tell us that Scotland is too different and it won't work for us here. We don't believe this is right. I'd encourage you to read this blog by Nick Kemp who was involved in the Land Reform Act in Scotland and spoke on the day.

 

 

BEECH TREES AND THE NATURALLY OCCURRING FOOD SOURCE

WE LOVE OUR CORNISH TREES

Who doesn’t love trees?  Cross onto the other side of Roughtor Road from The Platt and you can stand within the canopy supported by large trunks and branches of very mature Common Beech. Shelter, food and a safe habitat is provided by these giants. They are not the only trees in the vicinity as there are mature Sycamores and Oaks. Strikingly, courses of streams, are marked out by the verdant growth on their banks. I am lucky that I know the area and feel good within the sight of these wonderful giants.

But there is more to them than that.  As summer matures the seeds, nuts and acorns develop. After the two summer storms had given these trees a good thrashing the beech nuts crunched underfoot. I saw a fat Wood Pigeon pecking away in the middle of the road as I walked out with the dogs. Such trees are a wonderful food source for Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, various members of the Tit family, garden birds too, like the Blackbird and Chaffinch. One woodland bird that is the arch nut taker is the Jay and it is an important player in distributing both beech nuts and acorns. Ground feeders can benefit  and it is said that Badgers, mice and others will feast too. If I had been more alert I would have gathered some and put them into a feeder to see how popular these nuts would be compared to peanuts, fat balls and meal worms. It would be great to prove the experts right.

It appears that this was a glut year for beech nuts and this is what is said about those years for the trees and the species that feed on them.

“One of the main theories for this behaviour is ‘predator satiation’. Take oak and beech as an example again. Animals like squirrels, jays, mice and badgers feed on the acorns and beech nuts. When the trees produce smaller crops for a few consecutive years, they are in effect keeping the populations of these animals in check. But during a mast year, the trees produce more food than the animals can possibly eat.

This abundance causes a boom in populations of small mammals like mice. More importantly, it guarantees some will be left over to survive and grow into new trees. Mast years have a major evolutionary advantage for the tree. Producing nuts is costly work and slightly stunts the tree’s growth, but as it tends to happen every 5-10 years, it’s worth the payoff for some of the crop to germinate into new saplings.”

WALES BANS THE USE OF ANIMAL SNARES - WILL ENGLAND FOLLOW - FROM PROTECT THE WILD

 

The Wales snare ban has finally come into force today, on 17 October 2023. The country is the first in the UK to implement such a ban. Scotland, too, is likely to be following in Wales' footsteps. Meanwhile, England lags far behind both countries when it comes to the welfare of our wildlife.

The Welsh Senedd agreed to pass the Agriculture (Wales) Bill  - which includes a blanket ban on the use of snares and glue traps - back in June, but now the law can finally be enforced. Anyone caught using a snare could face an unlimited fine, prison, or both. Rural Affairs minister Leslie Griffiths was the driving force behind the ban. She said:

"We strive for the very highest standards of animal welfare in Wales, and the use of snares and glue traps are incompatible with what we want to achieve.

Many animals will now be spared the most terrible suffering as a result of this ban. I’m proud Wales is the first of the UK nations to introduce such a move."

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Not bowing under shooting industry pressure

Snares are used by gamekeepers on shooting estates in a cruel and misguided attempt to protect birds - who are going to be murdered for sport - from predators. Approximately 1.7 million animals are caught in snares across the UK every year. Protect the Wild has previously coveredhow Welsh ministers were subjected to pressure from the shooting industry when the ban was being considered. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and other pro-shooting organisations and lobbyists tried desperately to convince the Welsh government to add legislation permitting the use of 'humane cable restraints', which are just snares with a deceptive name. But Griffiths was having none of it. She said:

"To be very clear, a so-called humane cable restraint and a code-compliant snare are identical in every way, and have been in use since 2012".

She continued:

"My position remains unchanged... snares, whether they be code compliant—referred to in this amendment as 'humane cable restraints'—or not, are incompatible with the high standards of animal welfare that we strive for in Wales. They are inherently inhumane for both target and non-target species."

Days later the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) threatened to take legal action against the Welsh government. But ministers stuck to their guns. In fact, they ensured that the legislation banning snares was strongly worded, banning "any snare or other cable restraint" so that there could be no loopholes in the law.

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A LONG MESSAGE FROM LEGAL JUSTICE

 Our Twitter profile picture: we've changed it. The people behind Wild Justice are Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham - and tens of thousands of you! 

 

Lead ammunition: Wild Justice has been active on this subject for several years. Lead is a poison and environmentally harmful. It certainly doesn't make sense to shoot it into birds and mammals destined for the food chain and Wild Justice supports the withdrawal of lead ammunition. We have sampled game meat on sale in supermarkets in the last three shooting season and published the results (see here for something of a summary) showing that lead levels are very high. We may collect more samples this winter but it remains to be seen whether there will be much game on sale because of restrictions related to avian flu. You can help - if you see Pheasants for sale in supermarkets in October and November please let us know the supermarket and the location. That will add to our own surveys of availability and allow us to plan our work. Thank you.

 

Also, there is a public consultation on lead ammunition which has been delayed but has now opened - click here. The consultation closes in early December and we will brief you on what we think are the most helpful answers to feed in to this process in November. The shooting industry will no doubt mobilise its members and we want you to have your say too. Watch this space!

 

Licensing of gamebird releases: thank you to all of you who responded to the three newsletters (and blogs here, here and here) on this subject last week.  We've read all your input and we are beginning to get in touch with some of you to ask for more information. Also, we met with our legal team last week and planned some more action. We hear that Defra is incensed that we know so much about what is happening, such as the fact that keen shooter Lord Benyon is the minister making many of the decisions about whether shooting licences should be granted against Natural England's advice, but the Secretary of State herself has played an active role.

 

Books for schools: just a reminder that this is an opportunity for your favourite school to get some free books on nature and the environment. 

 

In 2020 & 2021, Wild Justice ran a project donating books to schools and libraries where 800 books were donated to 77 schools and 80 libraries from Shetland to the Isles of Scilly. 

 

We’re doing it again, but this time would like you, our supporters, to nominate a secondary school for a bundle of books (we've had 200+ nominations so far).

 

To nominate a school, simply reply to this newsletter with BOOKS as the title of the email and tell us the full postal address and weblink for your chosen secondary school. This offer is only open to our subscribed supporters - and we'll check! 

 

We’ll contact schools you nominate and ask them whether they would like 0, 1 or 2 of each of these books: 

• Chris Packham & Megan McCubbin Back to Nature 
• Ollie Olanipekun & Nadeem Perera Flock Together: Outsiders 
• Jess French Book of Brilliant Bugs 
• Dara McAnulty Diary of a Young Naturalist
• Gill Lewis Eagle Warrior & Song of the River 

We'll keep sending books until our budget for this project (books, postage, packing and logistical assistance) is exhausted - so get your nominations in quickly please. This is an investment in the future generation of naturalists and environmentalists.

 

 

Badgers in Northern Ireland: we mention this legal challenge now and again because it is still a live case, and we are still waiting for a judgment. Our first email on file about this case goes back to August 2021 and that's when we started a challenge of the legality of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs's plans to cull Badgers. We started fundraising in February 2022 and you supported the crowdfunder superbly so that we were able to file papers in April 2022, were granted permission for judicial review and went to court in Belfast on 21 November 2022.  Since then we have been waiting, waiting, waiting. 

 

Our partners, very good partners, all along have been the Northern Ireland Badger Group. We hope to have news, hopefully good news, soon, but we have been hoping that for months.

 

Please sign the #Nature2030 petition: Wild Justice is one of over 60 environmental organisations asking politicians to act for nature. We're asking for a countryside richer in nature, that polluters should be made to pay, a strong network of protected wildlife sites, green jobs and a right to a healthy environment. Over 75,000 people have signed already, many of them Wild Justice supporters, please see if you can add your support - click here. 

 

 

 

That's it for now!    

 

Thank you,

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).