THE HUNT SABOTEURS HIGHLIGHT CRIMINAL ACTION BY THE FOX KILLING INDUSTRY! MY WORDS NOT THEIRS

View this email in your browser Hi, Supporter Four Weeks To Go Until The Trail Hunting Consultation Closes! Coniston Foxhounds in the act of digging out a fox and ripping her to pieces There’s now less than four weeks to complete the government’s consultation on banning trail hunting. Please make sure your voice is heard before 18th June 2026. White terrier latched onto the fox’s hind quarters. This week, we are urging any of our supporters who have not filled out the consultation to rewatch the horrific video of Coniston Foxhounds and Teme Valley Hunt engaged in a dig-out. To date, around sixteen people have been arrested in relation to this incident. This is the kind of activity that takes place under the smokescreen of trail hunting. One of the most disturbing aspects of the video is the way that visibly young individuals – who would not even have been born when hunting was made illegal – are most involved in the abuse of the fox. Older male locates the subterranean terrier, while two youths get ready to dig. For example, while it is an older man who uses a terrier location device to find the site of the subterranean battle between fox and terrier, it is the younger hunters who are most enthusiastic in dragging the animals out. And, of course, it is a youth who takes the lead in grabbing the doomed fox by the scruff of the neck and carrying her off to the woods where she is thrown – alive – to the hounds. This youth grabbed the fox by the scruff and took her to the woods to be torn apart. The youths and children present are clearly experts in digging out foxes, handling hunted foxes and working with hardened terriers – this is, of course, compelling evidence that the horrors shown in the video are routine practice for the Coniston Foxhounds. But it is also evidence that these youngsters have been groomed into this criminality by the older individuals on the scene. Like any other Organised Crime Gang, the Coniston Foxhounds have been passing on a culture of cruelty and criminality to the next generation. The Coniston Foxhounds: sticking two fingers up at the law. Over the last twenty years, the hunters have proved themselves to be absolutely determined to carry on hunting. To stop them we need a ban on trail hunting - together with our other recommendations - to produce a watertight ban that even the extremist hunters cannot overcome. You can complete the trail hunting consultation here Complete the Trail Hunting Consultation Join the Hunt Saboteurs Association! Support our vital work by becoming a member. Join The HSA Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2026 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 PROTECT THE WILD — REHOME THE FOXHOUNDS. WE COULD EXCEPT THE HUNTS HAVE ANOTHER IDEA. SO SAD

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Rehome the Hounds! We took our campaign to Westminster! CHARLOTTE SMITH MAY 20 READ IN APP The hunting lobby is down to its last argument. They can’t hide behind the smokescreen anymore. So now they’re hiding behind their hounds, claiming that if hunting is banned, every single one of their dogs will have to be shot in the head. That they’re unrehomable. That the blood will be on the hands of people who want to protect wildlife, not hunts. They are weaponising the very dogs they claim to love. Dogs they are already killing, quietly, routinely, every single year, because they are no longer useful. We are not standing for it. So, we went to Parliament. We spoke with MPs who are hearing this argument and we showed them, with evidence, with expertise, and with one very large and very loveable hound called Alfred, that everything the hunting lobby is claiming is a lie. Rehome the Hounds The Lie We Are Dismantling When asked “what will happen to the hounds if hunting is banned?”, our answer is unflinching: what will happen is, sadly, already happening. A trail hunt ban does not seal these dogs’ fate. Hunts do. And that can change, the moment hunts choose mercy over convenience. Laura Walker, founder of The Pack Project UK, stood before MPs and showed them, from lived experience, that rehoming hounds is not a fantasy. It is achievable. With phased rehoming programmes, with proper support, with approaches that other countries have already pioneered, these dogs can and do find loving homes. Amelia Steele a behaviourist, an expert in rescue dogs, in greyhounds, in Spanish hunting breeds, gave MPs the scientific and practical credibility to understand that these dogs’ needs can be met. That behaviour can be supported. That adopters and rescues won’t be abandoned to figure it out alone if they take part in the Rehome the Hounds Pledge. And then there was Alfred. One of a handful of hounds lucky enough to have been rescued, Alfred reminded everyone what this fight is for. This enormous, gentle, giant brought laughter to those he met. MPs stopped. They crouched down. They buried their hands in his fur. They asked what we all have thought “how could anyone let this dog die?” Rehome the Hounds PTW, Amelia and Laura with Alfred. And the MPs who came? They came because they care. Neil Duncan-Jordan (Poole) Douglas McAllister (West Dunbartonshire) Navendu Mishra (Stockport) Rachel Maskell (York Central) Ruth Jones (Newport West and Islwyn) Alex Mayer (Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard) Richard Burgon (Leeds East) Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) Richard Burgon MP pictured with Alfred the rescued hound. Eight Members of Parliament from across England and Wales came, listened, and met Alfred. They left with our 2025 Forgotten Victims of Hunting Report, and the knowledge that a ban on fox hunting isn't just a victory for wildlife but for the hounds too. Rehome the Hounds This Is Where You Come In Our messages are simple; Hounds can be rehomed. Hunts need to stop breeding them and start rehoming them. And if you are a rescue, the hounds need your help. That is where you, our wonderful supporters come in. We are building a rescue network. A coalition of organisations willing to pledge one space (or more) to hunt hounds. Rescues who will stand up when everyone else walked away. Rescues who will say: not on our watch, because hounds are no different to other dogs - they deserve that chance. If you donate to a rescue, volunteer for one, work at one, tell them about this campaign. Ask them to pledge a space. Ask them to be part of something that could save lives and to get in touch with us on: hounds@protectthewild.org.uk We are also creating a verified list of accredited behaviourists ready to support rescues and adopters who take in hounds, because no rescue should ever feel like they are doing this alone. Hunt hounds are rehomable. Hunts must stop breeding and start rehoming them. Rehome the Hounds Alfred with PTW, he agrees that hounds should be rehomed! Stand with us. Stand with Alfred. Stand with the hounds. Find out more on our rehomethehounds.uk website. SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

ALL ABOUT BUMBLEBEE PRESERVATION FROM BUMBLEBEE CONSERVATION TRUST

view online Bumblebee Conservation Trust logo Side profile of yellow and black bumblebee on purple flower with pollen baskets As gardens burst into bloom, May comes alive with colour, warmth and wildlife. Today we're celebrating World Bee Day by learning more about the vital role bumblebees play in our ecosystem, including tips on how to identify bumblebees in your local area. Why not make a 'world' of difference by becoming a member to celebrate the charismatic bumblebee? 🐝What better time to support our science-led conservation work and help secure a future for bumblebees. Helping Carmarthenshire’s bumblebees: major project now underway Bumblebee on yellow flower with purple flower and grasses in foreground A major new conservation project has begun in Carmarthenshire to protect some of the UK’s most threatened and beloved bumblebee species, with local communities at the heart of the effort. Cynefin i Wenyn is a three year initiative funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund which will work to restore and reconnect vital habitats for bumblebees on the coast from Llanelli to Cydweli. Read the full news story 📰 Celebrate World Bee Day by bee-coming a member! Bumblebee on purple flower to right with text and pin badge example to the left with purple background Bee-come a member and receive a White-tailed bumblebee pin badge – PLUS wildflower seeds, pocket ID guide and loads more in your welcome pack 🐝 Together, we can restore wildflower meadows, inspire more people to take action, and secure a future for bumblebees. See your membership options 🤍 How to identify a bumblebee 🔍 Bumblebee in flight over a purple flower with greenery in background When you start identifying bumblebees you might find it a little daunting. Some of our 24 UK species appear similar, but if you look carefully (if you have the chance!) there are some telltale differences 🤔 There are several features that we can use as clues to help identify bumblebees including the tail colour and banding pattern. Find out more! Boost your bumblebee identification 🧐 Do you work with children aged 5 and under? Image of three young children wearing coats digging earth with illustration of items contained in box Our NEW Bumblebee-friendly Early Years Award is here! A hands-on accreditation programme designed to protect bumblebees by inspiring a love of pollinators from the earliest years 🐝 Delivered in a physical Early Years Award Box, it includes everything nurseries, pre-schools and home learners need to run fun, play-based activities 🎨 Order your box 📦 Bumblebee in the spotlight Bumblebee on blue flower amongst yellow, and white flowers and grass The Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) is one of the Big Eight common and widespread bumblebees. Let's take a closer look. Meet the Red-tailed bumblebee Protect your home, protect bumblebees! Close up of bumblebee on purple flower with Evergreen Insurance Services logo to the right and text to the left in white Protect what matters most at home while helping to protect the UK’s bumblebees 🏠 From now until 30 June, Evergreen Insurance Services will donate 25% of their commission from every policy requested to support the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s vital work. It’s simple: arrange your cover, safeguard your home, and know you’re helping to protect the future of the UK’s bumblebees 🐝 Request your quotation 📄 Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Registered Charity No: 1115634 / Scottish Charity No: SC042830. © 2026 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

IT’S BADGERS AGAIN - SEE WHAT THE HUNT SABOTEURS WERE ABLE TO PREVENT

View this email in your browser Hi, Supporter The Long Fight for Badgers A family of badgers snuffle the ground, rooting out grubs for their supper. Alerted by a strange scent, they turn around to see silhouetted against the moonlit sky two human figures standing there. One is carrying a gun. They don’t understand what this means but know there is danger close by. Before they can move, another group of humans appear carrying torches. They move towards the armed men and they drive away. The badgers are safe. Badger cull sabs have chased the shooters away and they will survive another night. A survivor in a cull zone. Image © Wiltshire Against The Badger Cull This much persecuted native animal has been made a scapegoat for the flawed biosecurity of the dairy industry and is being blamed for Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. In 2013 the government at the time, the Conservative & Lib Dem coalition, introduced what it called pilot culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Bowing to pressure from Defra and influenced by the ‘Krebs trials’ from the 1990s and 2000s, these culls were to allow shooters to kill badgers by free shooting at night and cage trapping followed by shooting. In 2012 Lord Krebs, who chaired the review team behind the randomised badger culling trials, was interviewed and stated that “The scientific case is as clear as it can be: this cull is not the answer to TB in cattle.” Yet in 2013 the cull’s aim was to kill 70% of badgers in each cull zone. Huge public protest and resistance followed. Anti-cull protests took place across the country. Image © Gloucester Badger Office Rightly outraged by this proposed massacre, activists and ordinary members of the public alike organised protests and arranged nightly patrols. The resistance was so fierce that in 2013, the cost of policing alone in the two pilot areas was £2.6m. Despite the exhaustive efforts of campaigners who were out patrolling and guarding badger setts night after night, over a period of six weeks, during this first year 1,879 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire and Somerset, the total cost per badger at around £5,000. A victim of flawed policy. Badger blood visible in a cage trap. Image © Gloucester Badger Office Many prominent celebrities spoke out against the cull, including Sir Brian May, as well as expert veterinarians and scientists. There were concerns that the killing was not humane, with badgers shot but not killed outright, suffering lingering deaths, or left in unchecked cage traps during the heat of the day. This murdered family of badgers included a cub. Image © Wiltshire Against The Badger Cull As well as being senseless, the culls were also ineffective. Thousands of badgers were being killed while bTB in cattle remained high. Instead of this being the end of the badger cull, it was instead rolled out to further areas. As the cull zones grew larger and covered more and more of the country, activists worked even harder to cover these wider areas and protect as many badgers as possible. Meanwhile the culls were costing the public a fortune; by 2018 the cost of the badger cull had exceeded £50 million. Campaigners protest in Derbyshire. Image © Derbyshire Against The Badger Cull In 2024, Sir Brian May released a BBC documentary called ‘Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me’ which challenged the scientific basis of England’s badger cull policy. The film showed how it was cattle-to-cattle transmission, rather than via badgers, that was the main source of bTB. With public opinion firmly against the badger cull, in 2024 the Labour Party stated they would phase out the cull and instead introduce vaccination. At the beginning of May we received the news that no new badger cull licences had been issued in Cumbria - the last cull zone remaining in England. While we remain optimistic that the badger culls are over in England, we will be ready should they ever start again. We are also closely watching events in Wales with Plaid Cymru now leading the Welsh government and claiming they will use a “science-led” approach, rather than the previous government’s cattle-focused approach, to bTB and “potentially opening the door to the use of badger culling as a management technique.” A cruel trap placed directly onto a badger sett. © Wiltshire Against The Badger Cull Since 2013, the badger cull in England has resulted in the killing of roughly a quarter of a million badgers. This means that roughly half the estimated badger population has been needlessly killed. When we look back at the long years of fighting the badger cull in England, we remember first and foremost the innocent lives lost. These shy creatures just wanted to live. They did not deserve to die. We also remember the huge numbers of ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things, who came together as strangers united by the determination to fight for badgers and who saved countless lives in the process. On patrol. Image © Somerset Against The Badger Cull As the cull areas grew, so did the numbers of people taking a stand against them and from these activists many hunt sab groups were formed - with people learning the essential sab skills of endurance, camaraderie and resistance. The government has launched a public consultation on Trail Hunting – this is our chance to stop cruel hunting for good. You can read the HSA’s guidance and take part in the consultation here. The deadline is 18th June 2026 – make sure your voice is heard. Take part in the Trail Hunting Consultation now: Have your say Join the Hunt Saboteurs Association! Support our vital work by becoming a member. Join The HSA Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2026 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 PROTECT THE WILD — STUFF THE TAXIDERMISTS IS WHAT I WOULD SAY

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more We paid a visit to the most vile shop in Scotland Taxidermied hunting victims, fox fur coats, racoon's tail hats and owl feather fishing hooks. DEVON DOCHERTY MAY 18 READ IN APP Last week, we were travelling down from some campaigning work in Inverness, and we passed a shop called The House of Bruar. We decided to go in for a look, and what we found shocked us. The House of Bruar is a high-end department store in the Scottish highlands, and it looks innocent from the outside. But step inside and you will find some of the most sickening displays of animal cruelty on the market. TAKE ACTION Real fox fur jackets selling for £1,150. Hats made with raccoon tails. Fishing hooks tied with the feathers and bodies of owls, hares, snipes and peacocks. Taxidermied animals displayed throughout the store like decorations - dead pheasants, stags and grouse turned into props for entertainment and profit. There was even a stuffed fox dressed in hunting gear, clutching a gun, as if to mock the victims of hunting and shooting. It’s absolutely vile that they think this is acceptable decoration. Wild animals are not ornaments. They are not status symbols. And they should not be reduced to lifeless displays to sell an outdated vision of “country culture.” No animal should end up skinned for a coat, turned into a hat, or mounted on a wall to entertain people. That’s why we’ve launched an e-action calling on House of Bruar to: Stop selling fur and feather products Remove taxidermied animals from displays Commit to becoming a fur-free, cruelty-free retailer, in line with the values of the vast majority of the British public House of Bruar has a choice. It can continue down the path of becoming a House of Horrors - or it can move with the times and show respect for animals. Please take 30 seconds to send an email today. EMAIL HOUSE OF BRUAR SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

MAKERFIELD BY-ELECTION - ROB OF PROTECT THE WILD WANTS TEN RESIDENTS TO NOMINATE HIM - JUST LIKE THE GUGA

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more I need 10 fox-friendly people in Makerfield… PROTECT THE WILD MAY 18 READ IN APP Hi everyone, I have a slightly unusual request. As some of you may remember, during the Scottish elections I stood dressed as a giant gannet bird to raise awareness about the brutal Guga hunt. Well… I may be about to do something similar again. The government’s public consultation on banning trail hunting closes on the very same day as the upcoming Makerfield by-election. After years of promises, warm words and political hesitation, I think it’s time to make a bit of noise and remind politicians that people have not forgotten about hunting. So yes, there is a very real possibility I’m about to stand in the election dressed as a fox. This would not be about becoming an MP. It would be about using what is likely to become one of the most heavily watched and widely discussed by-elections in British electoral history to force wildlife protection, fox hunting and the government’s promises back into the national spotlight. If Andy Burnham wins the seat, it is highly likely he will become the Prime Minister. And that creates an opportunity. An opportunity to make sure the issue of illegal hunting is not ignored, brushed aside or quietly forgotten yet again. To officially appear on the ballot paper, I need 10 people from the Makerfield constituency who are registered to vote there and willing to sign a nomination form. That’s all it is: no campaigning obligations no volunteering no financial commitment Just a signature to help get a fox onto the ballot paper. To make things easy, I would come directly to you, wherever you are in the constituency. If you live anywhere within the Makerfield constituency — including Ashton-in-Makerfield, Bryn, Golborne, Hindley, Orrell, Abram, Winstanley or surrounding areas — and would be willing to help, please email: makerfield@protectthewild.org.uk with: your name postcode and contact number. British democracy may be about to get slightly stranger :) Rob SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

GOOD NEWS FROM CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST - DONATIONS TO BY BARTINNEY ARE AT 80K

Dear John We wanted to share some fantastic news - thanks to the incredible generosity of hundreds of supporters, our Bartinney Land Purchase Appeal has reached its £80,000 fundraising target. This means Cornwall Wildlife Trust can now secure a vital 13.6-acre area of land within Bartinney Nature Reserve in West Cornwall, creating a larger and more connected home for wildlife. By bringing this land into the reserve, we can reconnect fragmented habitats, restore species-rich grassland, strengthen Cornish hedges and build a more resilient landscape where wildlife can adapt and thrive as the climate changes. From cuckoos and skylarks to adders and rare bees, so many species will benefit from the larger, better-connected reserve. If you donated to the appeal, thank you so very much. Your gift truly helped make all this possible, and we are so grateful for your support. If you wanted to donate but didn’t get the chance, there’s still time - you can still make a gift today. Any further donations will help fund future land purchases or similar conservation projects, allowing us to protect more places for wildlife across Cornwall. Send a gift today From everyone here at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, thank you for being part of a growing community of people taking action for wildlife – and helping to create a Cornwall where nature thrives. Best wishes, Cornwall Wildlife Trust View this email in your browser Facebook icon Instagram icon YouTube icon LinkedIn icon © 2026 Cornwall Wildlife Trust. All rights reserved. Registered charity number 214929. Privacy Policy and T&Cs Our mailing address is: Cornwall Wildlife Trust Five Acres, Allet, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 9DJ Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

FROM PROTECT THE WILD - FACTORY BRED GAME BIRDS - IS A GAME OF FUN FOR THE SHOOTERS

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more The Reality Behind Britain’s Shooting Estates PROTECT THE WILD MAY 17 READ IN APP There is a deep cynicism at the heart of the shooting industry. The same estates that advertise days in pursuit of wild, free-flying birds - charging their clients thousands of pounds for the privilege - often source those birds from breeding stock that have spent months in cages. Pheasants and partridges used for egg production spend a large part of their adult lives held in what are known as ‘raised laying units’: raised cages. They spend months suspended above the earth in wire mesh cages, never making contact with soil, leaf litter, grass or anything that might connect them to the natural world they are being sold as representing. This is a business decision. Cramming as many birds into as little space as possible. And the birds pay for it with their physical and mental health every single day. Become a Game Changer A pheasant is not a domesticated animal. Thousands of years of selective breeding have not dulled a pheasant’s instincts or reshaped a pheasant’s needs. These are birds that have evolved to forage. To scratch at the earth, turn over leaves, and investigate their surroundings. A pheasant makes hundreds of small decisions every day about where to go, what to eat and how to interact with other birds. These are not optional extras in a pheasant’s life - they are the behaviours that define them. Remove them, and you do not have a pheasant living a reduced life. You have an animal in a state of chronic deprivation. And that is precisely what the raised cage does. It removes everything. The wire mesh floor means the birds cannot scratch, cannot dustbathe, cannot forage. The cage dimensions mean they cannot move freely, cannot escape conflict with other birds, cannot make any meaningful choice about how to spend their time. In their glossy video Heart of England talk about how they have ‘enriched’ the birds’ environment. Enrichment is apparently a piece of wood. There is no complexity. There is just feed, water, and wire. And a bit of timber. Here’s a screenshot from the Heart of England Farms promotional video. But this is only part of the story. These birds, non-native Red-legged or French Partridges, will spend months in the cages before being boxed up, trucked to a shooting estate, and put in front of the guns… This is sensory and behavioural poverty on an industrial scale, imposed on creatures that are, by the shooting industry’s own proud description, wild. The consequences of caging are not theoretical. They are visible, documented and deeply disturbing. Crowded, unstimulated birds under chronic stress do what stressed, bored animals do: they turn on each other. Feather pecking, aggression and injurious behaviour are endemic in these systems. The industry’s response to this suffering has not been to question whether the cages themselves are the problem. Instead, it has reached for a technological fix. Beak guards — plastic devices attached to a bird’s face to prevent it from inflicting wounds — are routinely fitted to pheasants and partridges in cage systems like these. Saddles are strapped to the backs of hens to protect them from the damage caused by repeated, stressed mating in confined spaces. We will be examining these practices in detail in the coming weeks, because they deserve far more scrutiny than they have ever received. What they represent is not about animal welfare or animal care. They are damage limitation tools applied to animals that should never have been put in these conditions in the first place. None of this can be fixed with a welfare code. None of it can be addressed through voluntary guidelines or industry pledges to do better. The raised cage is not a flawed version of an acceptable system — it is the definition of a system that should not exist. Become a Game Changer Shooting’s fantasy world The shooting industry has spent decades hiding this reality behind images of rolling countryside and talk of conservation and stewardship. It has sold a fantasy of wildness while operating an infrastructure of confinement that would generate public outrage if it were applied to any other species. That outrage is overdue. This industry does not need reform. It needs to be held to account for what it actually is — and what it has been allowed to be, in plain sight, for far too long. At Heart of England Farms in Warwickshire, our undercover investigator found something even more shocking: colony cages — cages arranged in long rows and stacked three levels high, housing birds at every tier. The inevitable consequence of this arrangement is as straightforward as it is appalling: the birds on the upper levels defecate onto the birds confined directly below them. There is nowhere to move. There is no escape. The birds on the lower tiers simply endure it. The noise in the shed where these cages are housed is overwhelming. But Heart of England has tried to promote these hellish cages as an improvement, a step forward. The level of suffering they are attempting to whitewash has to be seen to be believed. In our upcoming Substack posts, we will be taking a detailed look at these colony cage systems. It is not easy to look at, but PLEASE don’t turn away. The birds are counting on us. All images are screenshots recorded by our undercover investigator at Heart of England. All of these cages were in use at the time of filming in 2025. We are working to END BIRD SHOOTING. This suffering has to stop. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates. End Bird Shooting Over the coming months our campaign will look at the shooting industry at every level. We will highlight the suppliers — the farms, hatcheries, importers and breeders producing tens of millions of birds under conditions that would provoke public outcry if applied to any other animal. We will expose the providers — the estates and syndicates that take those factory-farmed birds and sell the experience of killing them as leisure. And we will look at the clients — the paying guns who are fully aware of the wildlife crime, the trapping of native predators, and the mass suffering involved, and who have decided that none of it is reason enough to stay away. This industry survives because suppliers supply, providers provide, and clients pay. We intend to examine them all. We are working to END BIRD SHOOTING. This suffering has to stop. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates. We are at the beginning of something. Months of undercover work. Hundreds of hours of footage. Farms across the UK exposed. And we are only just getting started. But investigations alone do not end industries. People do. We are asking you to become a Game Changer. To stand with us as we take this fight forward, week by week, piece by piece, until the public, the media and the politicians can no longer look away. The first 500 people to sign up will receive a limited edition pin badge. This is the beginning. Be part of it. Become a Game Changer SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

PROTECT THE WILD SAY BREEDING OF BIRDS TO BE SHOT FOR FUN IS AN INDUSTRY

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more The shooting industry would hate you seeing this PROTECT THE WILD MAY 15 READ IN APP You are probably staring at that image above right now trying to work out what you are looking at. Most people will think it is a solar farm. It is not. This is the Heart of England ‘game’ farm. Rows of tiny cages. Hundreds and hundreds of them, stretching across acres of the Warwickshire countryside. And inside each one are birds caged for one reason: to produce more birds to be shot for “sport”. Cage after cage after cage, across an entire farm containing thousands of birds. A systematic, industrial breeding process carried out on living creatures who have no choice, no escape, and no existence beyond their function as reproductive units. The industry itself states that more than 30 million pheasants are shot each year. Many people wonder how a figure that high can be true. How can there be SO MANY pheasants? THIS is how. Millions of pheasants and partridges are factory-farmed like this every year in the UK in tiny cages like these. Become a Game Changer This is misery on an industrial scale. The shooting industry works hard to present itself as a small-scale rural tradition, woven into the fabric of the British countryside. The numbers tell a very different story — one that this investigation will be examining in detail over the coming weeks. More than 60 million pheasants and Red-legged Partridges, both non-native species, are released onto British shooting estates every single year. That figure has ballooned by nearly 600% over the past half-century, and in 2018 alone exceeded 61 million birds. This is not a handful of estates maintaining a countryside tradition. It is one of the largest annual releases of farmed animals into the British landscape ever undertaken, on a scale that dwarfs the wild populations of almost every native bird species in this country. And it begins with factory farming. In rows of cages. Video clip: Pheasants in raised cages, Heart of England. 2025 The overwhelming majority of shoots depend entirely on hand-reared, intensively farmed birds to function. Feeding that demand requires a network of around 300 ‘game’ farms across Britain, topped up by a substantial continental supply chain, with at least half of all birds beginning their lives on industrial farms overseas before enduring long-distance lorry journeys to reach UK estates. Become a Game Changer This is an operation with the infrastructure, supply chains and lobbying muscle of modern agribusiness. Yet it has successfully avoided the regulatory oversight applied to every other form of intensive animal farming in Britain. In the weeks ahead, we will look in more detail at the appalling cages in the images above: the infamous raised laying units — part of a system that could not be described in any better way than “factory farming.” And if you think these cages are bad, wait until we show you what we found at Heart of England. Its owners have taken the suffering one step further: colony cages. Cages piled three high, where birds literally defecate on the birds in the tier below. For now, though, take in the scale of all of this, recognise the suffering, and remember it. All screenshots from the undercover investigation at Heart of England Farms. End Bird Shooting Over the coming months our campaign will look at the shooting industry at every level. We will highlight the suppliers — the farms, hatcheries, importers and breeders producing tens of millions of birds under conditions that would provoke public outcry if applied to any other animal. We will expose the providers — the estates and syndicates that take those factory-farmed birds and sell the experience of killing them as leisure. And we will look at the clients — the paying guns who are fully aware of the wildlife crime, the trapping of native predators, and the mass suffering involved, and who have decided that none of it is reason enough to stay away. This industry survives because suppliers supply, providers provide, and clients pay. We intend to examine them all. We are working to END BIRD SHOOTING. This suffering has to stop. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates. Join the movement. Become a Game Changer. We are at the beginning of something. Months of undercover work. Hundreds of hours of footage. Farms across the UK exposed. And we are only just getting started. But investigations alone do not end industries. People do. We are asking you to become a Game Changer. To stand with us as we take this fight forward, week by week, piece by piece, until the public, the media and the politicians can no longer look away. The first 500 people to sign up will receive a limited edition pin badge. This is the beginning. Be part of it. Become a Game Changer SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

FROM PROTECT THE WILD - BIRD NETTING WHY OH WHY?

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more One click could save so many lives One click. One message. Eight chances to save lives. CHARLOTTE SMITH MAY 13 READ IN APP Birds are suffering. Birds are dying. And it could have been prevented. Right now, birds are trapped inside bird netting across the UK, unable to escape, slowly starving, left to die. This isn’t a side effect. It’s the result of a practice that is inhumane, indiscriminate, and ineffective. The Problem With Bird Netting Bird netting is sold as a deterrent to birds nesting in places people don’t want them. In reality it is a trap. Birds fly in and can’t get out. They die of exhaustion, starvation, or injury. Their bodies are left to rot, sometimes for weeks, in full public view. Pigeons are most commonly affected, but netting doesn’t discriminate. Any bird can become a victim. It doesn’t keep birds out. It locks them in. Click to remove netting! Deceased pigeon, who likely starved to death at Victoria Place, Woking, Surrey. 8 Locations. 8 Chances to Make a Difference. We’ve identified eight sites where harmful netting is actively trapping birds right now. We contacted every one of these businesses and asked them to remove it. They refused, or didn’t reply at all. Huws Gray, Pakefield, Lowestoft The Bush Hotel, Farnham, Surrey System Hydraulics Ltd, Cumbria Victoria Place, Woking, Surrey RD&E Hospital, Exeter Notre Dame School, Liverpool Kingdom Motors Ltd, London Haworth Arms, Hull So now we need you. Click to remove netting! Deceased pigeon, Haworth Arms, Hull. A New Tool: One Email, Eight Recipients We know petition fatigue is real. That’s why we built something different. Our new tool lets you send a single email that reaches all eight businesses at once, with multiple recipients BCC’d automatically. You don’t fill out eight forms. You don’t sign eight petitions. You act once, and all eight hear from you. One click. One message. Eight chances to save lives. Sign our petition today. Tell these businesses to take the netting down, contact Humane Wildlife Solutions, and choose compassion over convenience, before more lives are lost. These birds have no voice. You do. Please use it. Click to remove netting! Deceased pigeon at Kingdom Motors Ltd, London. What Else You Can Do 🔴 See a bird trapped in netting, alive? You must report it immediately to your local wildlife rescue, the RSCPA, the site owner, and the police. We are not able to physically remove netting ourselves, only the businesses can do that, but a rescue team may be able to intervene before it’s too late. ⚫ See a dead bird in netting? Report it to us at End Bird Netting. Every report builds the case for action and helps us identify new sites. 📢 Keep sharing this. These businesses are counting on no one noticing. Prove them wrong. Click to remove netting! This gull was finally rescued after spending 42 hours trapped in netting at Notre Dame School in Liverpool. The netting should never have been there in the first place and it’s time it was removed. Help fund this project and the fight for British wildlife! Pick up one of our lovely pigeon pin badges and help us protect these animals and change public perceptions! Pigeon Pin Badge SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

FROM WILD JUSTICE - A NEED TO KNOW READ FROM SHOOTING BIRDS TO OVERGRAZING ON DARTMOOR

Good morning, Today’s newsletter brings you a reminder about the consultation on bird shooting seasons, as well as other updates including a consultation on so-called trail hunting and a campaign to save Great Crested Newts. The shooting season of Woodcock – consultation closes soon: The Government recently launched a consultation on proposed changes to Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which governs which bird species can be shot, and when. The proposals cover species including Goldeneye, Pintail and Woodpigeon and are quite nuanced and technical, often with different changes proposed in different parts of the UK. This consultation was launched in part thanks to our campaigning and your support around limiting the shooting of Woodcock. Now we have the chance to see those changes actually happen, alongside several other positive changes for a range of bird species. The consultation closes this Sunday, 17th May. Many of you have already taken the time to respond — thank you. If you haven't yet done so, we'd really appreciate it if you could find a moment to respond before Sunday. We've reviewed Defra's proposals in detail and summarised our thoughts on each proposed change in our guidance notes, which we hope will help you formulate your own response. Click here to read our blog, where you'll find guidance on responding question by question. Wild Justice in the news: ‘What the Dartmoor ‘overgrazing ruling’ means for statutory bodies in England’. In March we heard the news that the High Court had ruled in our favour on our legal challenge about overgrazing on Dartmoor. In the case, we argued that ecologically valuable (and protected) areas of the National Park were being failed by the body responsible for looking after them. This week some analysis of the case has featured in the Environment Journal, that has published a detailed piece on the implications of the High Court ruling. The article quotes our CEO, Bob Elliot, who points out that upland areas like Dartmoor are among the most marginal farming land in the UK, covering vast areas while contributing relatively little food production. Our argument is that the public (who have subsidised this farming through their taxes) deserves an honest conversation about whether these landscapes could deliver a greater societal benefit if managed differently, particularly in terms of nature recovery and carbon storage. We are clear that this is not a call to end grazing, but a challenge to the assumption that farming must remain the primary use of our uplands. The article also highlights the wider significance of the ruling, noting that it sets a precedent for other statutory bodies managing similar landscapes across England, including on Exmoor, in the Lake District and in the New Forest. All can now expect greater scrutiny and pressure to demonstrate that their decisions are properly evidence-based. You can read the article by clicking here. A reminder about the consultation on so-called trail hunting: Last month we drew your attention to another consultation, this time looking at the implementation of a ban on so-called trail hunting - see here. Trail hunting is supposed to be a substitute for Fox hunting (which was banned under the Hunting Act 2004 by the previous Labour government) where, theoretically at least, hounds follow an artificial scent trail laid by humans. However, many groups have, over years, provided significant evidence that trail hunting is being used as a smokescreen to conceal ongoing Fox hunting, which has ultimately led to the Labour party’s commitment to ban it. Over 300 campaigners attended a rally outside Westminster last weekend, organised by the League Against Cruel Sports, calling for an end to the trail hunting lie. We were happy to join them and we applaud the efforts of the League, the Hunt Saboteurs and many others who have worked tirelessly to expose the illegality and appalling cruelty associated with this ‘sport’. The consultation on how best to implement a taril hunting ban is open until 18 June 2026, so there’s still plenty of time to participate. The League Against Cruel Sports has produced some very helpful consultation guidance, which we’d recommend using to guide your response. You can find it by clicking here. A petition about Great Crested Newts – and much more: We’d like to draw your attention to the Save Our Newts campaign and ask you to support their petition. A significant development is threatening London's largest breeding colony of Great Crested Newts, in Glebelands Local Nature Reserve in Barnet. The proposed development — one of the densest in the country — could push the GC Newts to local extinction. The application is currently being considered by the Mayor of London and a decision is due by 27 May. Whilst a local issue, this case has potential repercussions greater than one nature reserve. Under growing pressure to hit housing targets, we’ve seen legal protections for wildlife being steadily eroded. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 allows developers to pay a levy instead of carrying out genuine habitat mitigation (see our criticism of this "cash to trash" system here), effectively letting money substitute for meaningful environmental protection. What happens at Glebelands will act as a test case for how seriously those protections are taken. If this development proceeds, it sends a signal to developers and planning authorities across the country that wildlife protections can simply be brushed aside when they become inconvenient. Please sign the petition to stand up for Glebelands, for Great Crested Newts, and for the principle that our remaining wild spaces deserve genuine protection. You can add your name by clicking here. That’s it for now! Thank you, Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 268th 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). 124, City Road London Greater London EC1V 2NX UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

THE TRUE EXTENT OF SPRING STAG HUNTING - THE SHAME OF THE WEST COUNTRY

View this email in your browser Hi, Supporter The True Extent of Spring Stag Hunting The Spring Stag hunting season finished at the of April, after two months of pain, suffering and terror being inflicted upon, not only young stags in the South West, but the herds that reside there. This season follows on from hind hunting which comes after Autumn Stag hunting. During March and April, the three stag hunt packs pick out and hound young Spring stags, pushing them beyond their limits, forcing them to endure horrifying ordeals, with the aim of finally killing them and carving up their bodies. Sab groups have been attending meets; saving lives and documenting the cruelty and the exploitation of loopholes within the Hunting Act 2004 which enables these hunts to continue to bring terror to the South West. Below are a few documented incidents but the extent of abuse spans much wider than this. Sabs have been working tirelessly to expose the barbarity of stag hunts in the South West. On the 16th of March the Quantock Staghounds pushed a young stag beyond exhaustion. Sabs witnessed the stag panting and foaming at the mouth, before he was forced to endure another two hours of suffering. Eventually the stag became trapped up a wire fence, blood around his nose and a large cut to his chest where he had no doubt crashed into a fence in a desperate attempt to escape. A Mendip Hunt Sab came face to the face with this beautiful stag before he was ushered away by hunt staff who shot him, whooping and laughing as they did so. This young stag was pushed beyond exhaustion. With blood around his nose and a cut across his chest he had been subjected to horrific levels of cruelty for ‘research and observation.’ Credit: Mendip Hunt Sabs. Another example of the sheer cruelty and barbarity that is stag hunting is when on the 31st of March, the Devon & Somerset Staghounds targeted a stag that had part of one of his legs missing. They forced him to endure being chased by hounds, riders and quad bikes, before killing him. During the chase the stag was witnessed slipping and almost falling down a steep embankment whilst hunt supporters screamed and shouted to try and dictate his direction of travel. Stag hunts hide behind exemptions such as “Rescue of a Wild Mammal” to be able to continue inflicting pain and terror. At the Devon and Somerset Staghounds meet on the 18th of April, the initial target stag thankfully managed to evade the hunt, but not before being subjected to hours of being chased, with the huntsman riding directly at the herd, which included calves, to try and split them up. Realising this was a failed mission they moved on to terrorise an injured stag at Barton Wood. This stag had been seen limping and so was then forced to run for an hour in steep terrain before being shot. This is a direct contradiction of the ‘rescue’ of an injured or sick deer exemption which is in the Hunting Act 2004. Devon & Somerset Staghounds on a mission to kill. Credit: Mendip Hunt Sabs. At the Quantock Staghounds closing meet on the 23rd of April, a young stag was forcibly contained in a small area and made to run with no chance to rest. Eventually, the brave stag decided to make a break for safety and despite riders and quad bikes positioning themselves illegally offroad to prevent him crossing the track, the stag broke through, heading in the direction of the League Against Cruel Sports’ New Ground Sanctuary. The exhausted stag continued to push on despite a gunman ready to take his life. North Dorset Hunt Sabs reported of “horrendous noise” coming from supporters in an attempt to scare the stag back, but thankfully he pushed on past them. The presence of a Wildlife Guardian investigator then forced the hunt to leave, with this young stag’s life saved. Riders at the Quantock Staghounds attempted to prevent this stag from reaching the safety of a sanctuary. Credit: North Dorset Hunt Sabs. Sadly, cruelty such as this is a regular occurrence at stag hunts as they continue to exploit loopholes within the Hunting Act 2004. An exemption which has been mentioned in this article is the “Rescue of a Wild Mammal.” One of the conditions of this exemption is that “reasonable steps are taken for the purpose of ensuring that as soon as possible after the wild mammal is found, appropriate action (if any) is taken to relieve its suffering.” However, as sabs witness time and time again and as is mentioned above, injured deer are forced to partake in the hunts sickening chase for hours before being shot. Similarly, another loophole which is exploited is that of “Research and Observation.” This is often cited by pro-hunters despite there never being any research published since the Hunting Act 2004 was introduced. There is absolutely no evidence to support this excuse. In a paper entitled The Bateson Report which was published in 1997, Professor Bateson stated that “deer, particularly red deer are not adapted for long, endurance chases.” The study also reported that “hunted deer experienced extreme psychological terror and physical exhaustion.” Despite these findings deer are continually subjected to terrifying ordeals at the hands of the three remaining stag hunt packs in the South West. This stag was killed on the 4th of April by the Devon & Somerset Staghounds. His body was thrown onto the back of a quad bike while supporters waited to see it carved up. Credit: North Dorset Hunt Sabs. The law must do better to protect our deer and ensure that they are not subjected to sadistic cruelty. Have your say and tell the government that this barbarity must stop. Read the HSA’s consultation guidelines Thank you to all the sabs who continue to expose the sickening cruelty of stag hunting, and additional thanks to North Dorset Hunt Sabs and Mendip Hunt Sabs for the images used in this article. Read Stag Hunting: The Shame of the West Country Join the Hunt Saboteurs Association! Support our vital work by becoming a member. Join The HSA Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2026 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 THE HUNT SABOTEURS - ABOUT THE BAN ON TRAIL HUNTING

View this email in your browser Hi, Supporter FIVE WEEKS TO GO – CHRIS PACKHAM URGES YOU TO COMPLETE THE TRAIL HUNTING CONSULTATION! Last Saturday, Hunt Sabs were out in force in Central London, joining hundreds of others to hear Chris Packham urge the government to get on with the ban on so-called trail hunting. Chris and friends urge you to complete the consultation! Describing the practice as “hideous and sociopathic” Chris said: “I’m now 65-years old, and I cannot believe that I’m standing here, and this is still going on. We elected a government with a massive majority and a manifesto pledge to stop fox hunting. But two years into that term of government, and nothing has happened.” Hunt sabs flags dominated the skyline. Before Chris, the crowd heard from several other speakers. First up were the Badger Trust who reminded the crowd that badgers are often the ‘forgotten victims’ of fox hunting – frequently being buried alive when hunt terriermen block their setts to deprive hunted foxes of a refuge. An impressive line-up of speakers. Next up a speaker outlined West Mids Hunt Sabs incredibly successful campaign against the Warwickshire Hunt – sabbing every meet and exposing corruption at the highest level of Warwickshire police. She was followed by long-time friend of the HSA, actor Peter Egan, who was moved to tears as he recounted the horrors inflicted on animals by trophy hunters and fox hunters. Hunt sabs make their feelings known at Parliament. Peter was followed by the great Megan McCubbin. Megan spoke about ‘Operation Smokescreen’ where her and Chris have bravely live streamed from several hunts. Megan spoke about the many stresses involved and praised the efforts of hunt sabs who attend hunts week-in, week out. Mendip Hunt Sabs banner says it all. All of the speakers were united in their message: the consultation is the best chance we will ever have to get rid of the smokescreen of trail hunting and make the Hunting Act fit for purpose. Thank you to the League Against Cruel Sports for organising the rally. Please make YOUR voice heard and fill in the consultation today! Read the HSA’s consultation guidelines Join the Hunt Saboteurs Association! Support our vital work by becoming a member. Join The HSA Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2026 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

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH CAN YOU HELP THEM TO TAKE GOVERNMENT TO COURT

View in browser Dear John, The effects of climate breakdown are worsening. Extreme weather events are become more frequent and more severe. Yet the government's plans to protect us have consistently fallen critically short. Without necessary measures in place to protect our lives and livelihoods, few of us will escape the consequences. And for some, the effects are already devastating. That's why with your help we're taking the government to court again over its inadequate plan to prepare and protect the UK. We’re determined to succeed. Our record of legal wins shows we have the expertise to win in court and change the future. We just need your help. I'LL DONATE TO MAKE HISTORY We're challenging the government alongside Kevin Jordan and Doug Paulley – two people already directly affected by climate breakdown. This case at the European Court of Human Rights is the first of its kind. And if we win it could be a real turning point both for the climate crisis and for human rights. Climate breakdown isn't going away. Eventually it will affect you and me, if it hasn't already. We must act now before it's too late. Please support our demand for better protection from climate catastrophe. Donate today and join us as we fight for a safer, greener, fairer world. I'LL DONATE TO MAKE HISTORY With passion and solidarity, Niall, Senior Lawyer, Friends of the Earth About us Supporter promise Privacy policy Contact us DONATE This email was sent to spanishjohnedwards@gmail.com Want to change how you receive these emails? Unsubscribe from this list We send communications to our supporters who have opted in to receive emails from us. Friends of the Earth Limited. Reg. No. 01012357. Incorporated in England and Wales. Registered office: Friends of the Earth The Printworks 139 Clapham Road London, SW9 0HP United Kingdom Copyright © Friends of the Earth Limited

PROTECT THE WILD - THEIR FIRST EDITION OF ‘EYE ON THE WILD’ - TROPHY HUNTING NOT BANNED

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Govt u-turns over ban on trophy hunting imports Eye on the Wild - #1 TOM ANDERSON MAY 12 READ IN APP Welcome to the first edition of Eye on the Wild, our new weekly roundup designed to keep you up to date with the latest stories concerning British wildlife. Each week, we’ll share important news, updates, and stories from across the UK, including issues, species, and campaigns that may not always make the headlines. We’ll also highlight ways you can help and take action for wildlife. If you have a story you think we should cover, email us at contact@protectthewild.org.uk Killing for kicks: the British trophy hunters that Labour won’t stop Via Ban Trophy Hunting/Screenshot. Sign the petition now In recent days the UK mainstream media has revealed the faces behind Britain’s trophy hunting industry - ordinary people from the UK who travel abroad to shoot some of the world’s rarest animals for fun, then bring the body parts home as macabre momentoes. The Mirror reported that Labour has shelved its manifesto promise after pressure from the Trump administration. The UK government has issued 28 import licenses in the last month, including for hippopotamuses, african elephants, brown and black bears as well as lions, giraffes and Nile crocodiles. Giraffes, it turns out, are Britain’s most hunted trophy animal. Gentle, vulnerable and defenceless animals shot so their bones and skins can gather dust in British living rooms. Many species of giraffe are classified as endangered. The Guardian recently published an opinion piece stating that a ban on trophy imports is long overdue, highlighting one Sussex man who casually described shooting a critically endangered black rhinoceros, as well as lions and elephants as “like mainlining on heroin.” That this behaviour is accepted in 2026 is a national embarrassment. Labour promised a ban on hunting trophy imports in its 2024 manifesto. It has now confirmed there is no date set for delivery. Nine out of ten British voters support the ban. The Commons voted unanimously for it. The only thing standing between giraffes and British hunters is political cowardice. Sign the petition now Sign Protect the Wild’s petition calling for the government to keep its manifesto commitment and ban trophy imports. Don’t be fooled by Reform UK’s greenwash A photographer lets Nigel Farage know what they think of him. The Reform Leader was on his way to a Boxing Day parade to promote foxhunting. Leicestershire’s far-right Reform UK-led council has voted to explore reintroducing wild beavers as a natural flood defence - a genuinely welcome move. Beavers are wonderful creatures and remarkable ecosystem engineers whose dams slow water flow, restore wetlands and boost biodiversity. But let’s be clear about what Reform UK actually stands for when it comes to wildlife. This is a party that has pledged to protect “country sports” - a cynical euphemism for hunting, shooting. Its leader, Nigel Farage is an open supporter of fox hunting who has dismissed Labour’s trail hunting consultation as “authoritarian”. Farage doesn’t believe fox hunting is cruel. That tells you everything you need to know. Reform UK is not a party of wildlife defenders. A party that would unleash hunts on foxes, hares and deer while cheering from the sidelines cannot credibly claim to care about nature. We won’t be fooled - and neither should you. What’s more, the party plans to scrap thousands of nature laws risks pushing Britain’s depleted countryside into irreversible decline. Reform UK has been looking to secure more votes by giving a nod to caring about the planet. In fact, Farage has been in discussions with ecologist and Conservative Environment Network co-founder Ben Goldsmith about advising the party on their environmental policies. Goldsmith’s proposed involvement could be the beginning of an attempt to greenwash Reform UK, but his advice has been rejected by others within the party. At Protect the Wild we stand with many other wildlife defenders in opposing Reform, we won’t fall for their greenwashing. Gloucestershire named worst county for illegal hunting The Beaufort Hunt, courtesy of Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs. Gloucestershire has been identified as the worst county in England and Wales for illegal fox hunting and hunt-related havoc, with 75 incidents recorded in the last hunting ‘season’, according to the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS). It’s no coincidence that the worst counties - Dorset, Somerset, Yorkshire and Cheshire - are largely the same areas where hunts have been most active, operating with impunity for decades. Three of the five are in the West Country, a region that is also home to England’s three remaining staghound packs and some of its most notorious fox hunts. More than half of LACS’ recorded incidents were in the West Country. Check out Protect the Wild’s data on the worst UK hunts according to numbers of animals chased or killed and numbers of members of the public attacked here. None of this will surprise anyone who has been following our coverage of Gloucestershire’s hunts. The county is home to some of the most lawless packs in the country. The Beaufort Hunt - whose kennels are in Badminton - is among the worst offenders. A 2021 undercover investigation, supported by Protect the Wild, caught the hunt on camera shooting four of its own hounds dead. More recently, the Beaufort was issued with a Community Resolution by Wiltshire Police after its hounds ran out of control in front of a police officer. As we’ve been saying for years, we need a comprehensive ban to protect UK wildlife. There is just five weeks left to fill out the government consultation on banning ‘trail hunting’, which closes on 18 June. Protect the Wild has published guidance for people submitting their answers. Make sure you have your say! Click here to donate to Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs. Good news! First beaver sighting reported in Hampshire Via Ella Sachot on Unsplash. Nature’s engineers are on the move. Beavers have been spotted at Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve in Hampshire for the first time, with footage captured by a local visitor showing two animals interacting in the water. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust confirmed the sighting, describing the reserve’s rich wetlands and waterways as ideal habitats. The sighting comes after Natural England released wild beavers at two new sites in South West England earlier this year, building on last year’s landmark licensed release in Dorset. Hunted to extinction in Britain centuries ago, beavers are a keystone species whose dam building conserves water, protects against drought, creates wetlands, slows floodwaters, improves water quality and boosts biodiversity across entire ecosystems. Their return is not just good news. It is essential. Wild landscapes need wild architects, and after centuries of absence, beavers are finally coming home. Wild and free: Deer on Liverpool’s Crosby Beach Screenshot from video posted by Joe Walsh/Liverpool Echo. Deer have been spotted frolicking on Crosby Beach. It is a joyful, unexpected sight, and a reminder that our wildlife is resourceful and knows no boundaries.. Yet not everyone is celebrating. Media coverage has increasingly framed Britain’s two million deer as a crisis, pointing to woodland damage, road collisions and calls for greater culling. The scapegoated deer, it seems, are becoming a problem to be solved. No one ever points out that the intersecting environmental crises we are facing are being caused by capitalist industrialisation, not by non-human animal species. At Protect the Wild we are more than aware that the first impulse of the authorities in non-human species ‘management’ is to reach for the rifle. But we should not be looking towards more culling. Britain’s deer population has grown precisely because we have systematically removed the predators that once kept it in balance. Wolves and lynx were hunted to extinction here centuries ago. Their absence is the real crisis. If management is genuinely necessary in some areas, the conversation must be centred on non-lethal options: contraception programmes have been shown to be viable, and the reintroduction of apex predators such as wolves or lynx would restore the natural regulation our ecosystems are crying out for. Academics have also promoted the reintroduction of wolves as a way to counteract climate change because it would enable the regeneration of woodland and thus the storage of large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). The deer on Crosby Beach are not a problem. They are a glimpse of a wilder Britain, and we should be fighting to protect it. Read more about the debate around the reintroduction of apex predators. Become a monthly supporter of Protect the Wild We’re working around the clock for British wildlife - and doing it on a shoestring budget. We don’t rely on major grants or corporate funding. Instead, our work is powered by thousands of passionate supporters, and that’s exactly how we want it to stay. Because it means we stay independent. It means we can move quickly, speak honestly, challenge powerful interests, take risks, and do what truly needs to be done for British wildlife. If you’d like to support our work and help us keep fighting, please consider becoming a monthly supporter here. Donate to Protect the Wild SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

THE REWILDING INSTITUTE - IT’S WORTH.A READ

REWILDING EARTH JOURNAL | May 8, 2026 Photo by Kenyon Fields Rewilding Isn’t About Saving Nature. It’s About Letting Go of Control Rewilding is often mischaracterized as nostalgia — a sentimental longing for some imagined pre-human wilderness, or a technical conservation strategy dressed up in romance. That framing misses what rewilding actually disrupts. Rewilding isn’t a return. It’s a refusal. A refusal of the extraction-first worldview that treats land as inert matter, animals as units of production, and ecosystems as systems that must be optimized, managed, or corrected. Rewilding asks us to reconsider the stories we’ve inherited about land, ownership, and human centrality. The emphasis on cores, corridors, carnivores, compassion, and coexistence isn’t a checklist or a branding exercise — it’s a challenge to the deeper cultural logic that produced ecological collapse in the first place. And for those looking to engage, rewilding offers tangible entry points. READ MORE Photo by Mariano Rodriguez Chile’s Vast Kelp Forests Promise Climate Refuge, with a Warning An interdisciplinary team led by Rewilding Chile has completed the first phase of the Patagonia Megatransect — an ambitious, multi-stage underwater journey spanning 745 miles from the Gulf of Corcovado to Cape Horn. The project documents one of the planet’s largest intact kelp forests and uses advanced technology to advocate for their protection. The expedition ventures into a little-known ecosystem of monumental scale: the forests of Macrocystis pyrifera, giant kelp that reach lengths up to 260 feet. One of Earth’s most efficient natural carbon sinks, giant kelp are able to absorb up to 20 times the amount of carbon as forests on land. By measuring their precise capacity, the new data could position Chile as a leading planetary reservoir of blue carbon. READ MORE Photo by Kenyon Fields LISTEN / WATCH Laiken Jordahl on the battle for Big Bend (Rewilding Earth podcast) Wild beyond borders with Kris Tompkins (The Explorers Club) TAKE ACTION Stop attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Wilderness Society) READ A time to rally: When Ted Turner gave Jacques Cousteau an end-of-life pep talk (Yellowstonian) Voyageurs Wolf Project captures first evidence in a century of cougars reproducing in Minnesota (WDIO News) Trump administration moves to push bison off Montana land (USA Today) The strange reason why wildlife agencies want Americans to buy more guns (Vox) Immaculate wilderness, uncertain future: Paddling the Boundary Waters (New York Times) UPCOMING DONATE NOW GET INVOLVED WITH REWILDING This is a place for writers and photographers to share your work and reach a wide audience of committed rewilders. Check out our Rewilding Earth Submission Guidelines. For more ways to become involved, contact us at volunteer@rewilding.org. SUBSCRIBE Facebook icon Instagram icon Spotify icon YouTube icon Adirondack Park and bighorn photos by Kenyon Fields, giant kelp by Mariano Rodriguez View email in browser REWILDING INSTITUTE, PO BOX 13768, ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87192 update your preferences or unsubscribe

SWIFT NESTING SITE ‘BLOCKED’ BY A PIPE. IS THIS REALLY REAL?

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more URGENT: Help save a Swift nesting site PROTECT THE WILD MAY 12 READ IN APP A long-established swift nesting site is at risk and we urgently need your help. At the Pound Road (Banstead) swift colony, a newly installed flue pipe has been positioned directly in front of an active swift nesting entrance, blocking access to a site these incredible birds have reportedly used successfully for many years. This issue was identified and raised by the brilliant local conservation group Banstead Swifts, whose dedicated volunteers have worked tirelessly to monitor, protect, and advocate for swifts in the area. Without groups like Banstead Swifts, many nesting sites - and the birds that depend on them —- would simply go unnoticed and unprotected. Swifts are one of Britain’s fastest declining birds. They travel thousands of miles from Africa every year to return to the exact same nesting sites - only to increasingly find them gone, blocked, or destroyed. The loss of nesting spaces is one of the main reasons their populations are collapsing across the UK. And now it is happening again. Banstead Swifts said on Sunday they saw a Swift collide with the pipe, fall, then return and try to access the nest between the pipe and brickwork. They’ve seen no nest entries since. What makes this especially frustrating is that this situation appears entirely avoidable. The flue pipe could reportedly be repositioned relatively easily, restoring access to the nest and protecting this important breeding site. Sign the petition We are urging Raven Housing Trust to act immediately and demonstrate genuine commitment to wildlife protection and biodiversity by moving the flue pipe before this nesting site is lost. Please take a moment to sign our petition to Raven Housing Trust politely and respectfully asking them to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Every nesting site matters. Every pair matters. And if we continue allowing sites like this to disappear, we will continue watching swifts vanish from our skies. Thank you for standing up for swifts. Sign the petition SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

RIGHT TO ROAM - THE RIGHT TO HAVE ACCESS WERE LANDOWNERS DON’T WANT YOU TO GO

WHY WON'T YOU PAY! Dear Roamers, The reviews are in, and OUR LAND is proving a hit, with packed-out screenings and an extensive national release. The film has launched to a flurry of media interest. Channel 4 produced this report covering the film and the recent Kinder mass swim trespass. Meanwhile, a short clip featuring Guy’s, um, ‘interesting’ encounter with aristocratic landowner Francis Fulford has found one and a half million eyeballs and counting. “WHY WON’T YOU PAY” jabs Francis, who seems to believe every countryside walk should start with a BACS transfer to the landed elite. (How much did you pay, Francis?) The Guardian published this feature on the film and delivered a strong four-star review, hailing the “simple, reasonable aim” of the campaign: that England and Wales should follow Scotland in introducing a proper right to roam. Little White Lies gave four stars too, describing the film as "superb" and noting that while it "takes great pains to give both sides of the debate an equal platform” it is nonetheless “clear what side is the one of rational common sense, empathy and creativity”. We quite agree… Time Out found the campaign made its point with “passion and clarity”… but didn’t think much of our fireside singing (fair enough – three stars). The Islington Tribune / Camden New Journal also gave a four-star verdict, describing the film as “excellent” and a “careful polemic”. They found sympathy with the idea “that England should adopt the same laws as Scotland, where land ownership doesn’t mean you can ban people from responsibly accessing it”. The Conversation doesn’t indulge in star ratings, but reflected that “many of the featured landowners and access campaigners agree on the artificial nature of landownership, their individual powerlessness to effect change and on the social and legal constructs that trap us all in an uncomfortable standoff.” We’re not so sure about the powerless bit! You can check the full list of screenings and dates on the distributor’s website here. More are added every week. Please continue sharing the trailer with friends and family to help us reach as wide an audience as possible. And if your local cinema isn’t showing the film, drop them a line and ask why! Politics being what it is, there's no better time to spend an hour and a half in a dark room gazing at a slow-mo advert for a free countryside, while Nadia riffs on justice and belonging in mellifluous Geordie tones. Political turmoil. Again. It won’t have escaped you that the UK government has entered yet another phase of turmoil. All other issues aside, for campaigns like ours, such moments bring upsides and downsides. Downside: the more the government is embroiled in drama, the less attention it gives to the things we care about. Leadership contests, even where the leader survives, trigger reshuffles, which means any work building relationships with ministerial teams is undone. Upside: the government has so far been disappointing on access. It’s possible a change of guard could produce a more engaged set of ministers who are willing to drive the access agenda forward. It remains the case that access reform is popular, affordable, easy to implement, and strongly within the tradition of the Labour party. The greater the need to mash a giant button labelled RESET within the current fiscal and political constraints, the more sweet the sound of the piper may be… Campaign funds We have a favour to ask. We try to avoid coming cap in hand to supporters too often. We know finances are strained and many causes are asking for help. However, if you can afford to donate a fiver a month to the campaign (or whatever is affordable for you) to keep us going we’d be grateful. Around a quarter of the funds we need to continue our current work haven’t materialised this year and we’re working out how to plug the gap. We’re a lean machine, currently sharing around two and half full-time salaries across six members of the team. With that level of resource, we think we do a good job punching above our weight! A few hundred more supporters will help supercharge our work during a crucial year before the King’s Speech in 2027 – which may well be our final shot this parliamentary term. Quick explainer here on how we spend our resources. We’ll continue to keep you updated with our honest assessment of the prospects for achieving concrete political change. The garlic may be on the turn. But the orchids are still to come. Keep roaming, Jon, on behalf of the Right to Roam team ---------- Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. Want to get involved? Visit our website here. This campaign is made possible through small monthly donations from supporters like you. We are currently relying on only 500 monthly subscribers. Without growing that number, our work is at risk. Can you help keep us going by becoming a monthly subscriber? £5 / Month £10 / Month £15 / Month £20 / Month OUR LAND has officially launched nationwide this week. 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.

PROTECT THE WILD - GIANT ROB POWNALL’S GANNET GRABS THE HEADLINES IN SCOTTISH POLITICS

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more We Didn’t Win the Election - But We Changed the Conversation How a giant Gannet running for parliament forced Scotland to talk about the Guga hunt. DEVON DOCHERTY MAY 9 READ IN APP Yesterday, we lost the election. But we won the moment. Because as millions of eyes across the country watched the results being announced, they saw a massive Gannet seabird on stage, unfurling a placard that read “END THE GUGA HUNT.” A few months ago, the idea sounded ridiculous. Run for Scottish Parliament dressed as a giant Gannet? But sometimes the only way to force people to confront an uncomfortable truth is to make it impossible to ignore. And that’s exactly what we did. Over the course of this election campaign, our founder Rob stood as an independent candidate in Edinburgh Central - the seat of power in Scotland, home to the Scottish Parliament itself to demand an end to the Guga hunt. If you didn’t know already, the Guga hunt is an annual tradition where ten men travel to the remote island of Sula Sgeir in northern Scotland, take baby gannets from their nests and bludgeon them to death for a local delicacy. Hundreds of years ago, this practice began as a matter of survival in times of food scarcity. Today, it survives only because of tradition - protected by a special exemption buried within Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. A single sentence in law which we are determined to change. Out of the shadows, and into the headlines Only a few months ago, it felt like hardly anyone knew that the Guga hunt was happening in Scotland. But our elections campaign has received widespread media coverage that has propelled it into the spotlight. From the original articles announcing that a man dressed as a giant seabird was running for parliament, to coverage of our attempted gatecrash of the Scottish Tory manifesto launch (apparently they weren’t interested in our “Ganifesto”) and then Have I Got News For You featured us on a segment, putting the campaign in front of over four million average viewers. We then made headlines again as Scots “flocked to the polls” on elections day, including front page coverage in the Edinburgh news. Then came the moment we had been waiting for. As millions watched the election results coming in live, they saw a Gannet standing on stage unfurling a placard reading: END THE GUGA HUNT. That message was broadcast on BBC News at Six. It appeared again on BBC News at Ten and also a ITV News at Ten. It was seen by millions of people across the UK and beyond. And the next morning, it was splashed across newspapers, websites and social media pages all around the country. To be honest, there’s now almost too much media coverage to keep track of. But perhaps the most extraordinary part was how perfectly everything aligned. Edinburgh Central became one of the most closely watched seats in Scotland after SNP veteran Angus Robertson lost his seat to Scottish Greens candidate Lorna Slater - making history as the first Scottish Greens MSP ever to win a constituency seat. And because candidates stand alphabetically on stage, Rob - whose surname begins with “P” - ended up positioned directly beside them both, which meant when the placard came out, it was directly in frame at the centre of one of the biggest moments of the night. This campaign was never about getting votes. It was about putting the Guga hunt into the public eye and onto the political agenda. And we believe we’ve achieved that. We’re delighted that Lorna Slater won the seat, with the Scottish Greens currently the only mainstream political party to have publicly committed to ending the Guga hunt. We hope to work with Lorna and other MSPs on this issue in the coming months. The public is paying attention Since yesterday’s coverage, Google searches for “End the Guga Hunt” have surged. Our petition calling on NatureScot not to issue this year’s licence is climbing rapidly - now surpassing 166,000 signatures and continuing to grow. SIGN THE PETITION A campaign with a tiny budget and only two people working on it managed to put a centuries-old hunt onto front pages, prime-time television, and in front of a nation’s eyes. What’s next? The election may be over, but the real work starts now. The new Scottish Parliament has formed, and we’ll soon be meeting with MSPs and stepping up direct political campaigning to put an end to this outdated activity once and for all. Our ask is clear: Remove the exemption from the Wildlife and Countryside Act that allows the Guga hunt to continue. The government petition to end the Guga hunt received more than 100,000 signatures and is expected to be revisited by parliament shortly. Combined with the growing national attention around the issue, we’re entering this next phase with real momentum. We’ll also continue scrutinising NatureScot and pushing them not to issue this year’s licence in light of the evidence and overwhelming public concern. The truth is this: We are closer than we’ve ever been to ending the Guga hunt, but without more people powering this fight, we cannot finish it. That’s why today we’re asking for your help. Adopt a Gannet! Become a monthly supporter of Protect the Wild and power the fight to end the Guga hunt. You can also choose to make a one-off donation. ADOPT A GANNET As a thank you, we'll send you a Gannet plush toy - a small, soft reminder of a bird worth fighting for. We’re not sure how many we will stock - so don't wait around! SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

FLIGHTS OF FANCY—THE BIRD GAME SMOKESCREEN FOR FOXHUNTERS

View this email in your browser Hi, Supporter Six Weeks to Make Hunting History! Flights of Fancy - The Bird of Prey exemption At the end of March, the government launched its long-awaited consultation on how to ban ‘trail hunting’. This is a once in a generation opportunity to finally blow away that smokescreen and close the many loopholes in the 2004 Hunting Act. Just another smokescreen for illegal hunting. But there are now just six weeks to complete the consultation, which closes on the 18th June 2026. To make sure your voice is heard, the HSA has produced guidance on completing the consultation which you can find here. This beautiful bird is stuffed in a box so he can go fox hunting. One of the most outrageous loopholes is the so-called Bird of Prey exemption, which was included in the 2004 Hunting Act to allow the bloodsport of falconry to continue once hunting with hounds had been banned. Incredibly, some hunters have used this loophole to continue fox hunting for over twenty years. The hunt simply carries on as it did pre-ban but take along a bedraggled bird of prey which they claim will used to kill any foxes flushed by the hounds. It would be funny if it were not so utterly cynical and cruel. If you believe this, you’ll believe anything… Even the Hawk Board, falconry’s governing body - which has strong links to the Countryside Alliance - state that foxes are not a recognised quarry. They further state that by exploiting this loophole, hunters create serious welfare concerns for both the bird and the hounds. Although this loophole is not widely used, the fact that it is used at all shows the utterly ruthless determination of fox hunters to exploit any loophole they can find – it is for this reason that the HSA is calling for the removal of ALL exemptions in addition to many other measures. Please help make hunting history by completing the consultation today. The government has launched a public consultation on Trail Hunting – this is our chance to stop cruel hunting for good. You can read the HSA’s guidance and take part in the consultation here. The deadline is 18th June 2026 – make sure your voice is heard. Take part in the Trail Hunting Consultation now: Have your say Join the Hunt Saboteurs Association! Support our vital work by becoming a member. Join The HSA Spread the word! Please share our news Share via email Facebook icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Logo Copyright (C) 2026 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

CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST — DOING THINGS FOR WILDLIFE

View this email in your browser Dear [first name] On Wednesday 20 May, Cornwall Wildlife Trust invites you to join our annual panel discussion to explore the state of nature in Cornwall — and the reasons for hope. Date: Wednesday 20 May Time: Doors from 6.30pm with event starting at 7pm Location: Burrell Theatre, Truro School, Trennick Lane, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 1TH Tickets: £5 Chaired by BBC Radio Cornwall presenter Julie Skentelbery, join us for a thought‑provoking evening exploring the pressures facing Cornwall’s wildlife — and whether inspiring conservation efforts are enough to reverse the decline. 👉 Book your place today Book Now Join us for an evening of conversation and debate, with pasties and drinks & nibbles beforehand, and the opportunity to stay on afterwards to meet the panel and team. Free event parking. 🎟 Tickets are just £5 - but already selling fast. 🥟Order by May 12 to get a free pasty with your ticket Book your place today You may also like: Open Gardens Various Dates | 2pm - 5pm Join us and celebrate the 15th anniversary of Open Gardens this year. With 8 gardens across Cornwall flinging open the garden gates, come for the gardens - stay for the tea and cake! Looe Island: Birds, butterflies & more Thur 21 May | 9am - 12.30pm This is a small-number experience offering access to our island nature reserve — ideal for wildlife lovers, photographers, and those seeking a peaceful morning immersed in nature. More dates available. Reptile Spotting Weds 27 May | 10am - 11am Come on an adventure around Penhale dunes to look for some of our amazing reptiles including adders, slow worms & grass snakes. Beginner’s Botany Sat 30 May | 10am - 4pm St Columb Major This workshop from the Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall & Isles of Scilly will help you identify the wildflowers that we find in Cornwall, to family or species level. See more events Facebook icon Instagram icon LinkedIn icon YouTube icon © 2026 Cornwall Wildlife Trust. All rights reserved. Registered charity number 214929. Privacy Policy and T&Cs Our mailing address is: Cornwall Wildlife Trust Five Acres, Allet, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 9DJ Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

FROM PROTECT THE WILD — BLOOD SPORT ON KILLING FOR ‘FUN’ — BLOOD ON THEIR CHARACTERS

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Undercover footage aired by ITV exposes cruelty at the heart of the bird shooting industry Our undercover investigation launches on national television CHARLIE MOORES MAY 6 READ IN APP Shooting. They call it “sport”. Dress it in the language of tradition, countryside stewardship, and conservation. Wrap it in tweed and tie it with the reassuring ribbon of British heritage. But what Protect the Wild’s investigators found behind the gates of a British farm tells a very different story - one the shooting industry has spent decades and millions of pounds keeping hidden from public view. Earlier this evening ITV aired footage from our undercover investigation. We are very grateful they listened to us, looked at our evidence and decided to cover it. If you missed it or would like to watch again, here it is: Become a Game Changer The shooting industry produces tens of millions of pheasants and Red-legged Partridges every year for the gun. Birds are crammed into wire pens, unable to express natural behaviours, suffering injuries that go untreated, living short and brutal lives from hatchery to gun barrel. The scale is staggering. The indifference is worse. The footage is shocking. Distressing. Already, the reaction has been one of shock and disgust from ordinary people across the country seeing, for the first time, what is done to prepare living creatures for “sport”. We’ve been receiving emails from people who knew things were bad - just not THIS bad. But it was far from the worst of it. It was just a few minutes. A glimpse. What ITV showed was just a fraction of the evidence we collected. We recorded hundreds of hours. Multiple breaches. Across many farms. “…Sounds cruel…” Over the past 12 months, Protect the Wild’s undercover investigators placed hidden cameras at half a dozen farms across the UK. What we recorded over months and months of painstaking work tells the same story everywhere we looked. Suffering on an industrial scale. The shooting industry has spent years selling the public a lie. That it cares. That ‘welfare’ is baked into the operations. Heart of England scrambled to release Facebook post just after the broadcast claiming “Welfare is at the heart of everything we do.” Nonsense! It is part of a sprawling, greedy industry that has normalised mass suffering. This is big business, operating in plain sight, propped up by decades of countryside mythology and political cowardice. Politicians from the current Labour government actually describe this system as ’sustainable’. Tell that to the birds… Become a Game Changer “They just get stuck and die” Over the coming months, Protect the Wild will be releasing many more findings from this investigation. We will be documenting the conditions, the cruelty, the casual suffering treated as an acceptable cost of doing business. We will be examining the legal frameworks that allow this industry to operate in ways that would be unacceptable in any other context. We will be asking why birds that would be protected under animal welfare law in almost every other setting are excluded the moment they become “game.” “…high welfare standards…” The industry’s response to ITV’s programme on our investigation was just what we expected: denial, deflection, and a shrug of the shoulders. But this isn’t about a few rotten apples. We found pain and suffering everywhere we looked. The shooting industry has friends in powerful places. It has lobbying groups, friendly ministers, and a carefully curated public image built on country fairs and charity shoots. What it does not have - what it has never had - is a convincing answer to the question of how what our cameras recorded can be described as anything other than industrialised cruelty. The birds you saw on ITV last night have no voice. The investigators who risked their safety to expose this have given them one. And we at Protect the Wild will not stop until the full picture is understood, the public debate is had, and those responsible are held to account. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates. Follow End Bird Shooting on Substack Stay with us. There is much more to come. Join the movement. Become a Game Changer. We are at the beginning of something. Months of undercover work. Hundreds of hours of footage. Farms across the UK exposed. And we are only just getting started. But investigations alone do not end industries. People do. We are asking you to become a Game Changer. To stand with us as we take this fight forward, week by week, piece by piece, until the public, the media and the politicians can no longer look away. The first 500 people to sign up will receive a limited edition pin badge. This is the beginning. Be part of it. Become a Game Changer SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing

REVEALED ON NATIONAL TV TONIGHT ON THE PRODUCTION OF GAME BIRDS FOR THE ELITE RICH

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Tomorrow Night Britain Will Be Taken Inside the Bird Shooting Industry PROTECT THE WILD MAY 5 READ IN APP Tomorrow night, 06 May 2026, ITV News will broadcast footage that the bird shooting industry has spent decades hoping the British public would never see. It comes from Heart of England - one of the UK’s largest breeders of pheasants and partridges for the gun. It was recorded by undercover investigators working for Protect the Wild, as part of the largest investigation ever undertaken into British gamebird breeding farms. We commissioned the investigation because we knew what was happening behind the locked gate was horrendous suffering and neglect. Now the country will see it too. We are urging every one of you to watch. ITV has done its job responsibly and professionally, and we are grateful this investigation is receiving the national attention it deserves. But you need to understand something. What you will see tomorrow night is a fraction of what our investigators recorded. A news broadcast can’t show the full scale of what we found in a few minutes. Our cameras were recording for many weeks. The footage we captured runs to hundreds of hours. We witnessed routine suffering, casual cruelty, and injuries left untreated. The birds at this ‘farm’ lived and died in conditions that would shock anyone who believes living creatures deserve basic dignity. This is not one rogue farm caught on a bad day. What our investigators recorded at Heart of England is the everyday reality for tens of millions of birds bred for shooting across Britain every year. The industry’s own economics demand it. You cannot run these operations any other way and still turn a profit. The suffering is not incidental. It is structural. Our End Bird Shooting campaign is going to expose this vile industry like never before. ITV has opened the door. Over the coming months, Protect the Wild will take you through it and right into the heart of the industry. We won’t pretend our footage is easy to watch. It isn’t. You may want to turn away. Please don’t. The birds on farms across the UK don’t have that option. They lived those conditions every hour of every day, from hatching to death. The discomfort you feel watching is nothing compared to what they endured. Make that discomfort the first spark of the anger that changes things. Tomorrow’s broadcast is the opening move in a much longer campaign. In the weeks and months ahead, we will be publishing detailed footage, legal assessments, and evidence that goes far beyond what any news bulletin will show. ITV will air the footage at 6:00pm on ITV Anglia, Central, Meridian, Tyne Tees, West Country, and Yorkshire - a combined audience of between 3 and 4 million viewers! Journalist Nick Smith, who is presenting the programme, will also be LIVE on ITV Central for a studio chat. The take down of the vile bird shooting industry starts tomorrow, 06 May. Please watch ITV’s footage. Share what you see. Share our socials. Don’t let this become a news story that fades by the weekend. Subscribe to our End Bird Shooting Substack for much more! We’re building a movement to end bird shooting and this is just the beginning. Become a subscriber to our End Bird Shooting Substack and help us. Upgrade to paid Join the movement. Become a Game Changer. We are at the beginning of something. Months of undercover work. Hundreds of hours of footage. Farms across the UK exposed. And we are only just getting started. But investigations alone do not end industries. People do. We are asking you to become a Game Changer. To stand with us as we take this fight forward, week by week, piece by piece, until the public, the media and the politicians can no longer look away. The first 500 people to sign up will receive a limited edition pin badge. This is the beginning. Be part of it. Become a Game Changer SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing