THE TRUE FACE OF HUNTING AND CRIMINALITY — BOLTING FOXES

 

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Bolting foxes: Exposing the real face of hunting Videos show hunts forcing foxes from dens or other refuges straight to hounds TRACY KEELING NOV 13 ∙ GUEST POST   READ IN APP   Hunts across the country have held their opening meets in recent weeks as yet another fox hunting 'season' gets underway. To mark the season's start, the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) released three videos - recorded by hunters themselves - that demonstrate the despicable practice of 'bolting'. The main fox hunting season runs from the end of October through to early April. Real Media recently explained in poetic terms what this means for foxes: "It is killing season. November to March, fields will be bloodied, and terror will reign. Horses will thunder, while horns scream a century’s old call: to chase, to hurt, to maim. Men with spades dig into dens to brutalise, butcher and brawl. Foxes, now broken, souls needlessly stolen away. Night sweeps in with a stinging silence, holding vigil with nothing to say." By October each year, however, foxes are already acutely aware of the barbarity that this minority of humans is capable of. The 'season' follows a three-month-long period of 'autumn hunting', otherwise known as cubbing,during which hunts train young hounds by hunting and terrorising fox cubs and young hares. Meanwhile, staghound packs have been chasing and killing mature stags over this same period and are about to set their sights on female deer (hinds). Bolted and hunted As Real Media highlighted, one of the horrors that hunts subject foxes to is forcing them out of their dens or other underground refuges, so the wild animals can be brutalised for 'sport'. This is the focus of the HSA videos, which all show foxes being bolted from their hiding places so they can be illegally hunted. In the first clip, a man is seen with a terrier under his arm and a spade blocking a hole near his feet. When he removes the spade, a fox bolts from the hole – into the path of the hunt's waiting pack of hounds: The second video, which was recorded from a distance, shows people and a hound pack gathered on a hillside. An individual is seen banging either a spade or stick on the ground, in order to bolt a fox. Again, once the fox makes a run for it, the hunt immediately encourages its hounds to give chase after the terrified wild animal. The pleasure these wildlife criminals get from their actions is palpable in the video: The final clip shows yet another group of individuals digging into the ground to make a fox bolt from their underground sanctuary, with hounds immediately unleashed on the wild animal to give chase. People can be seen standing further away in the landscape, seemingly in order to get a good view of the carnage. The HSA explained that this particular form of bolting "is designed to keep the hounds ‘in blood’ by all but guaranteeing a kill." As the HSA noted, terriermen played a central role in the actions shown in the videos. Terriermen are individuals hired by hunts to carry out certain acts, such as flushing foxes out of their underground refuges, oftentimes with the use of terriers. They also block entrances to possible fox sanctuaries, like badger setts, to stop the wild animals from being able to go to ground in the first place. It is of course illegal to interfere with an active badger sett. The true face of hunting Videos like these expose the real face of hunting, which is far removed from the sanitised version that the hunting industry tried to sell to the public and policymakers with its National Trail Hunting Day in September. As an HSA spokesperson said: "Just like the two Avon Vale videos showing separate ‘dig-outs’ in which three foxes were killed, these three videos have been filmed by the hunters themselves and then shared as sick trophies of their exploits. As the new hunting season is about to get under way with hundreds of ‘opening meets’ taking place across the country in coming weeks, this is a snapshot of what happens when hunters think they are safe in only their own company." Hunting's true face is also apparent in Protect the Wild's annual reports. These analyses mostly document what hunts get up to at monitored meets, meaning what they do on occasions when they know they are being observed by saboteurs and monitors. The latest report – A Case for a Proper Ban on Hunting –  shows that nearly 600 wild animals were chased or killed over the course of the 2023/24 hunting season. For all these reasons, the UK government must make good on its promise to ban trail hunting. This is the main loophole in the Hunting Act that hunts rely on to get away with continued wildlife persecution, as described in Protect the Wild's animation "A Trail of Lies". As Protect the Wild recently said in an open letter signed by a number of high-profile British celebrities, now is the time for government action: "To put an end to the animal cruelty and criminality that is frequently observed during hunting seasons, the Labour government must ban the smokescreen that is trail hunting." A guest post by Tracy Keeling Environmental journalist Subscribe to Tracy   SHARE     LIKE COMMENT RESTACK   © 2024 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ  Unsubscribe

THE US AND THEM CONUNDRUM

 THE US AND THEM CONUNDRUM — WE MUST PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE AGAINST WANTON KILLING

Madamoiselle Woden is moving her chairs around upstairs as thunder booms and heavy rain bounces on the road in Costa Blanca. Will there be any reverberations in mainland Britain as the commoners think long and hard on many things that should not be.  Treason is not my thing but institutions have and should move out of old fashioned unnecessary normality. How much shock and horror needs to be published for those who think they can do what they want — to change!

And now my comments to the post by Protect the Wild

It goes again the grain of perceived normality to ask this question. How will the British Broadcasting Corporation handle or not handle at all the ‘glaring-in-the-face fact’ that the nation is divided. There is a class divide, (although apparently there is no class with designated title of ‘workingclass’) wealth divide, power divide, political divide and the aristocratic divide that and every one of these labels shrieks division.

One does not to have be that knowledgeable to know it is about us and them. Nothing is more obvious about what people are allowed to do and those en-chained by the passage of time. From the Norman Conquest onwards the control has been there and continued onward through feudality with reverence to the monarchy that still holds to this day.

Rob Pownall of Protect The Wild on his post proclaims ‘The future King is a hypocrite’ and says  we need to talk about it. The future king with his stance on wildlife protection as a world ambassador and his hereditary right to own vast estates and go hunting is absurd. The two do not sit cosily together as I believe they are two opposites.  Royals, it appears, entertain themselves with the full gambit of blasting  ‘reared-for-the-purpose-fed pheasants’ out of the sky assisted by their gamekeepers. The same goes for Red Grouse  too. Add into that the royal patronage of Cirencester College and their pack of beagles, others riding to the hunt for both fox and stag  and we have gentlemen and ladies who kill for their own pleasure.

Add into his idea that trophy hunting is permissible in that funds can be ploughed back into helping wildlife. That is not the way I see it. Euthanasia maybe but an old lion shot for a trophy? Oh, come on it’s abhorrent isn’t it?

My own blog carries posts of perpetrators who shoot, poison, disrupt nesting birds and add fire to  heather to encourage growth for the grouse to feed on. Peatland vandalised for a rich persons pursuit. The very ecosystem we must preserve as a harbour for invertebrates and to hold in CO2. I wrote these few words below sometime ago and they say all that is needed, I think.

smokesmudges

smokesmudges drift

as winds free power

blows the deceit somewhere else

to hide natureswargraves

amongst wild grasses and purple heather

as invertebrates incinerate

and the bodies of the fallen

drift away

never to be lodged

in the minds of killers

Prince William, heir apparent,  has brought himself to the attention of the world by his ambassadorial role. But he is not alone as member of his family and all those in the hierarchy of monarchal life are supporters of maintaining their ‘status quo’. 

Rob is correct —we need to talk about it and keep on talking.

FROM PROTECT THE WILD — THE FUTURE KING IS A HYPOCRITE

 

View this email in your browser The future King is a hypocrite and it's time to talk about it. Hey everyone,  In today's video I address the elephant in the room. Prince William isn't this champion for wildlife as he likes to make out, but rather he's a hypocrite with a shameful past for animal abuse.  I'm sure you've seen the recent headlines about the future King's 'Earthshot prize', with this year's winners announced in South Africa, as William was praised for his biodegradable trainers and his passion for environmental protection.  Whilst this all very admirable, what the press and hardly anyone else fails to mention, is the long history of animal killing and environmental destruction that William is linked to.  It's all very well giving lectures to the rest of the world about how they should be conducting themselves whilst back at home he is blasting birds out of the sky and doing nothing to stand against the huge scale of illegal wildlife persecution taking place in the British countryside.  So I made a video to address this hypocrisy and call on the future King to actually do something to help protect British wildlife if he truly wants to be seen as this champion for conservation.  You can give it a watch below!  Rob Watch here 2025 PTW CALENDAR There's still time to pick up one of our Protect the Wild 2025 calendars.  All images in the calendar have been provided by Protect the Wild Supporters.  These are selling super-fast so to avoid disappointment, please order your calendar today. Buy Now Copyright © 2024 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.

Good morning! Today we publish a report which reveals that levels of rat poisons found in birds of prey, Red Kites and Buzzards, have risen alarmingly in recent years despite a government-endorsed scheme which aims to reduce their levels. Yet again, Wild Justice is blowing the whistle on failure of government and its agencies to protect wildlife. Our report analyses and publishes data that government and its agencies have been sitting on for years. We show that the levels of rat poisons in the livers of Buzzards and Red Kites have increased alarmingly despite a government-endorsed scheme, introduced in 2015, which was supposed to reduce wildlife exposure. The Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme has failed and we call on government to impose greater restrictions on the legal use of rat poisons and take greater steps to combat criminal use of such poisons to kill birds of prey. You can read the full report here - click here - with a summary, lots of graphs and our calls for action. We'd like you to write to your Westminster MP and your representatives in the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh legislatures to draw their attention to these findings (although the data we obtained were for England only) and to ask them to contact government ministers across the UK administrations and ask them what action they will take. You can find your elected representatives as follows: Members of Parliament (click here), Members of the Senedd (click here), Members of the Scottish Parliament (click here) and Members of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland (click here). Ask your representative to write to the relevant government minister (they will know who that is) to ask on your behalf what steps will be taken. Stress that you are concerned that poisons are found in non-target species and that this is a mixture of careless use, lax regulation and some illegal use. In time, your representative will get a response from the minister which they will forward to you. We'd be interested to see those responses please. Wild Justice depends on donations to do our work. We haven't asked for donations in any of the 10 newsletters since 3 July (the day before the general election) as we have had a healthy bank balance and as a not-for-profit company we aren't in the business of accumulating wealth (and having to pay Corporation Tax on it). We have had four months and more of sensibly spending down our bank balance. Now we're in a new financial year we need to start building that balance up again. if you like what we do then please donate today. You can donate through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here. You are our source of funding and a donation today would also feel like a vote of confidence in what we are doing. That's it for now - but after a gap of over four weeks since our last newsletter we think we'll be back in touch pretty soon. Thank you, Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 212th 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

 

Good morning!    Today we publish a report which reveals that levels of rat poisons found in birds of prey, Red Kites and Buzzards, have risen alarmingly in recent years despite a government-endorsed scheme which aims to reduce their levels. Yet again, Wild Justice is blowing the whistle on failure of government and its agencies to protect wildlife.     Our report analyses and publishes data that government and its agencies have been sitting on for years. We show that the levels of rat poisons in the livers of Buzzards and Red Kites have increased alarmingly despite a government-endorsed scheme, introduced in 2015, which was supposed to reduce wildlife exposure. The Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme has failed and we call on government to impose greater restrictions on the legal use of rat poisons and take greater steps to combat criminal use of such poisons to kill birds of prey.   You can read the full report here - click here - with a summary, lots of graphs and our calls for action.   We'd like you to write to your Westminster MP and your representatives in the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh legislatures to draw their attention to these findings (although the data we obtained were for England only) and to ask them to contact government ministers across the UK administrations and ask them what action they will take. You can find your elected representatives as follows: Members of Parliament (click here), Members of the Senedd (click here), Members of the Scottish Parliament (click here) and Members of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland (click here).    Ask your representative to write to the relevant government minister (they will know who that is) to ask on your behalf what steps will be taken. Stress that you are concerned that poisons are found in non-target species and that this is a mixture of careless use, lax regulation and some illegal use. In time, your representative will get a response from the minister which they will forward to you. We'd be interested to see those responses please.     Wild Justice depends on donations to do our work. We haven't asked for donations in any of the 10 newsletters since 3 July (the day before the general election) as we have had a healthy bank balance and as a not-for-profit company we aren't in the business of accumulating wealth (and having to pay Corporation Tax on it). We have had four months and more of sensibly spending down our bank balance. Now we're in a new financial year we need to start building that balance up again. if you like what we do then please donate today. You can donate through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here. You are our source of funding and a donation today would also feel like a vote of confidence in what we are doing.   That's it for now - but after a gap of over four weeks since our last newsletter we think we'll be back in touch pretty soon.   Thank you,   Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).   This is the 212th 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

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