Undercover footage of raptor persecution ‘a game changer’

On 22 October Channel 4’s Alex Thomson introduced extraordinary video footage captured by the RSPB Investigations Team of three gamekeepers on a grouse moor in North Yorkshire, discussing (and then off-camera killing), a Hen Harrier. While that may not sound particularly ‘game changing’, what makes this footage especially important is that the audio quality is […]

Equipment Fund: Keeping up the pressure on Cheshire’s hunts

Twenty years after the passing of the Hunting Act there are still several hundred hunts going out with packs of hounds (and more often than not with a hardcore of badger baiters and dog fighters that make up hunt ‘terriermen’). Having tried to bludgeon the public and the authorities into submission and force repeal of […]

Serious outbreak of Avian Flu found in pheasants

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has reported an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI H5N5) in 20 pheasants released onto a Worcestershire shoot. The outbreak was recorded on APHA’s weekly updated database for week 39 – in other words between 23-29 September – in Wychavon. No precise location details are provided and […]

As the pheasant shooting season begins we reflect on how normalised shooting has become

Without any of the ludicrous fanfare surrounding the ‘Inglorious 12th’ but with 100 times the number of birds involved, today sees the opening shots fired in ‘the pheasant shooting season’. In England, Scotland, and Wales the ‘season’ ends four months later on 01 February, a month earlier in Northern Ireland. In that time millions of […]

Bloodbusiness now with MAPPING

Back in July, Protect the Wild launched a new website, bloodbusiness.info “a community-driven, fully searchable website that helps pro-wildlife people like ourselves choose where we spend our money based on our personal preferences.” What we’ve been creating since then is essentially a list of businesses that support in some way the ‘bloodbusiness’ industries of hunting […]

‘New’ badger cull policy: still not good for badgers

On 30 August, Defra announced “Government to end badger cull with new TB eradication strategy”. It was, they said, the “first Bovine TB strategy in a decade to end the badger cull and drive down TB rates to protect farmers’ livelihood.” This announcement came less than two months after Labour was elected. They had promised […]

Guest blog: Trail Liars, Recklessness and Observation and Flushing for Fun.

A stag swims for his life and is then killed by the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. Photo by North Dorset Hunt Sabs

A few days ago, appalling footage of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds killing a stag emerged. The hunt had spent four hours on their ‘sport’ before the stag, exhausted and desperate, waded into a river to escape. Encircled and trapped, too weak to run any further, he was finally shot and his suffering over. (See […]

Nothing glorious about the ‘Inglorious 12th’

grouse shooting industry

The 12th of August (the ‘Inglorious 12th’) marks the start of a key ‘season’ for the shooting industry. Over the next 121 days that industry will aim to sell hundreds of thousands of Red Grouse to shooters to kill.

We’ve launched bloodbusiness.info

On Saturday 27 July we launched a new website bloodbusiness.info – but what is it and what is it designed to do? In a nutshell, bloodbusiness.info is a secure list (or database) of businesses that in one way or another support the ‘blood businesses’ of hunting with dogs and the shooting of birds and mammals […]

See you at Action for Wildlife Day!

Protect the Wild is heading to the Peak District! On August 10th – just two days before the Inglorious 12th and the start of the grouse-killing season – both Rob and Charlie will be at Carsington Water in Derbyshire for an Action for Wildlife Day. Organised by Hen Harrier Action, the event is being held […]

GUILTY: Ashley Game Farm convicted of multiple pesticide offences

ashley game farm guilty multiple pesticide offences

The discovery of a poisoned Buzzard next to a poisoned bait by a member of the public led to the search of a Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge breeding farm in Chulmleigh, Devon conducted by Devon and Cornwall Police in March 2021. A number of pesticide offences were discovered including the presence of Carbofuran, the same […]

The Secret Monitor: Linhope Estate, Northumberland

The Secret Monitor

Damaging stories from inside hunting and shooting have been circulating for years. Both industries present a public face that aims to convince politicians and the public alike that everything they do is lawful or ‘sustainable’. The truth is very different, and much of what takes place is out sight. Supporters, clients and even the police […]

Taking on the bird shooting industry: our plans

end dhooting

At Protect the Wild we say we want three things: to end hunting, end bird shooting, and end the badger cull. Over the last year we have pretty much focussed on hunting with dogs: mainly fox hunting, but in a series of animations and Secret Monitor posts also stag and hind hunting, and hare coursing […]

Equipment Fund #22: Suffolk Action for Wildlife

Suffolk Action For Wildlife (SAF) have been monitoring and exposing illegal hunting across Suffolk since 2021. Focussing their work on the Essex and Suffolk Hunt, they have always generously shared their news and images with us here at Protect the Wild (see for example ‘CONVICTED! Terrierman guilty after terrorising monitors on quad bike’ and ‘Essex […]

GRAPHIC IMAGES: Stink Pits – as disgusting as they sound

stink pits as disgusting as they sound

Anyone who comes across one of the shooting industry’s ‘hidden secrets’ will know immediately how stink pits got their name. Also known as middens, stink pits are ‘built’ by gamekeepers on shooting estates. They are pits or piles of dumped rotting mammal and bird carcasses which literally ‘stink’ and are used as bait to lure […]

Hackney resident woken to sound of gunshots as foxes shot in vicarage

On 23 June, Hackney resident Claire was suddenly woken by the sound of gunshots. Highly alarmed she realised that the shots were coming from the vicarage her garden backed on. Inside the vicarage was a young family. What on earth was happening…? Claire, who told Protect the Wild she has worked in war zones in […]

#RsetsoreNatureNow march – 60000 of us heading in the same direction

Restore Nature Now March London June 2024

On Saturday 22 June, 60,000 activists walked through London. All ages, all backgrounds, an almost unimaginably broad range of interests and concerns. Even a few years ago we might have seemed disparate, unconnected with each other, but for a glorious, precious few hours we united behind two simple messages: 1) our world is dying, we […]

ENGLAND: Glue Trap ban in force soon!

glue trap

Glue traps, sometimes referred to as sticky boards or glue boards, are used to trap mice or rats. Non-drying adhesive is placed on a board and as animals walk across them they are trapped and unable to escape, their fur or limbs becoming increasingly stuck to the glue as they try to wriggle free. Thankfully countries […]

Labour Party manifesto and the Cull: the key word is ‘ineffective’

Labour Party says badger cull ineffective

The party manifestos are now out. There isn’t really a great deal for us pro-wildlife folk to get excited about, but we are intrigued by a few short lines referring to the badger cull in the Labour Manifesto—specifically the inclusion of the word “ineffective.” That’s because we think, as campaigners against the badger cull, we […]

The Secret Monitor: Endsleigh Shoot, Devon

The Secret Monitor

Damaging stories from inside hunting, shooting, and the badger cull have been circulating for years. Everything from breaking the law to assaults or harassment of monitors and the public while a police force seems happy to ‘look the other way’. But there is always someone watching, always someone listening. The Secret Monitor. In this post […]

THE KILLING CONTINUES: Defra orders new badger cull licences

Earlier this year, Defra (the government department working on behalf of the hunting, shooting, farming and fishing industries) launched a ‘sham consultation’, allegedly seeking input for plans to continue killing badgers for the dairy industry. If the government were to go ahead with those plans, licences might be indefinitely issued to kill 100% of badgers […]

Northern Ireland: Red Kite euthanised after shooting

A Red Kite was so seriously injured in a shooting last month that she had to be euthanised by a vet treating her. Well-known throughout the Mournes, in Co Down, the bird, nicknamed Vivienne after the identifying tags ‘6V’ attached to her wing, was found injured in Newry, on Saturday, April 20. X-rays found that […]

Government badger cull plans on hold

Back in March, Defra (the government department working on behalf of the hunting, shooting, farming and fishing industries) launched a ‘sham consultation’, allegedly seeking input for its pre-decided plans to continue killing badgers for the dairy industry. If the government were to go ahead with those plans, Natural England would issue licences indefinitely to kill 100% […]

Yorkshire Dales: new report proves it’s a raptor persecution hot spot

Yorkshire Dales National Park is a raptor persecution hot spot

The Yorkshire Dales Bird of Prey ‘Partnership’ (YDBPP) recently published a ‘Bird of Prey Evidence Report’ which supposedly documents the status of raptors in the ‘national park’ and provides details of confirmed illegal persecution between 2022-2023. England’s ‘national parks’ are notorious persecution hotspots, so any truly independent analysis should slam the management of the grouse […]

We’re supporting a new sab group in the west of England

The 2023/24 ‘hunting season’ (and how appalling is it that a wildlife crime still has the term ‘season’ attached to it?) may have ended at last, but that doesn’t mean that monitor and sab groups are not making plans and rebuilding or restocking after a bruising nine months – or that Protect the Wld is […]

Yet another raptor killed in Peak District National Park

Shot Peregrine Peak District April 2024

Derbyshire Police are working with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) after an adult female Peregrine Falcon was discovered shot in the Peak District at Hey Clough off the A628 Woodhead Pass, near Crowden, on Saturday, April 4. Like all birds of prey, peregrines are fully protected by law (see our page […]

Is the Chepstow Show inviting hunts again?

It looked for a while that organisers of the Chepstow Show – keen to avoid a repeat of the tricky questions they received last year about Hunts parading in the ‘Main Ring’ – had come up with a cunning plan. Leaked minutes from a planning committee meeting in February suggested that they would invite the […]

Builder destroys three bat roosts fined £111

A Caerphilly-based builder has received a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £111 – roughly equivalent to a day’s pay for someone on the average UK wage – for illegally removing a roof at a property and destroying THREE separate bat roosts where protected Common Pipistrelles, Soprano Pipistrelles, and Whiskered Bats were […]

United Pack steal monitor’s drone

On 24th February 2024, volunteers with Shropshire Wildlife Monitors were monitoring the Bishops Castle-based United Pack (UP), who were holding their last meet of the ‘season’ at Newton Farm. Amongst the volunteers was a drone operator. The day ended with the UP stealing the drone and driving away with it. The United Pack may not […]

Fox thrown to hounds – another Avon Vale Hunt member sentenced

Thomas Ledbury convicted terrierman Avon Vale Hunt

A terrierman who was working for the now disbanded Avon Vale Hunt when he ‘supervised’ a live fox being thrown to a pack of hounds in December 2020 has been sentenced. 38-year-old Thomas Ledbury pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another to commit the offence of causing unnecessary suffering to a fox. Ledbury, who lives […]

Ireland: Badgers, wildlife crime, and a dangerous legal precedent

Rehabbed badger by Ruari O Leochain

(This post has been written in collaboration with Ruairí Ó Leocháin of ‘Stand with Badgers’. Please note Ruari’s ask at the bottom of the page.) Speaking on wildlife crime in the Irish Examiner last December, veteran environmentalist and Green Party Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan said “We are seeing […]

South Durham Hunt: yet another hunt recorded breaking the law

Illegal fox hunting and North East Hunt Monitors

The evidence that hunts don’t just break the law occasionally but break it routinely has never been seen by so many people. From Channel 4 exposes to numerous Facebook pages managed by monitors and sabs, the lie that fox hunts are just ‘out trail hunting’ has been exposed over and over again this so-called ‘hunting […]

The Muirburn Bill – an achievement but nowhere near the end

Yesterday Holyrood passed the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, stating on their website that “Scotland’s wildlife will benefit from increased protection thanks to a new law passed by the Scottish Parliament.” The new law has been designed to implement the recommendations set out in the Werritty Review which was published in December 2019. Undoubtedly […]

Holderness Hunt kill badger – and run away!

On 27 January this year, Hull Wildlife Protectors (HWP) were monitoring the Holderness Hunt (who are based at Etton, near Beverly) when they witnessed a fox fleeing across one of the region’s wide flat fields. Huntsman Tom Wright (formerly with the notorious Cheshire Forest Hunt) was seen to deliberately lead the hunt’s hounds along the […]

White-tailed Eagle shot in Ireland

Young White-tailed Eagle found shot dead in Ireland March 2024.NPWS

A young female White-tailed Eagle was found shot dead in Ireland last week. Part of a long-running national reintroduction programme run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) she had been released at Lough Derg, Co Donegal two years ago, and was found by Cranberry Lough 180km to the south.

Badger Cull U-Turn: “Sunak now wants all the badgers dead”

badger

Sunak now wants all the badgers dead and this looks like a last chance grab at getting widespread culling back in place so it is difficult for Labour to scrap it as promised, in favour of the urgent cattle testing policy revisions that Defra have suppressed with their BTB partnership cabal which was recently exposed on the Badger Crowd website.”

GREAT NEWS! Yet another hunt is going…

Great news. Pendle Forest and Craven Harriers Hunt is folding

The Pendle Forest and Craven Harriers, a hare hunt covering Lancashire and North Yorkshire and based at kennels at Coniston Hall near Skipton, are disbanding. They join a long list of hunts folding as landowners and the public turn more and more against them. The Hunt made the announcement on 12 March, saying that the […]

We can all help tackle the scourge of egg collecting

In late February a serial egg thief admitted to illegally hoarding thousands of rare birds’ eggs he’d stolen. Daniel Lingham, 71, appeared at Norwich Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to five offences involving 2995 eggs, including taking eggs from a non-schedule 1 wild bird (a Nightjar) on 9 June 2023 at Holt, Norfolk. Lingham […]

Footage of stag hunt reveals blatant lawbreaking by Devon and Somerset Staghounds

The team at Wildlife Guardian recently posted brief but evocative footage of part of a stag hunt that took place on the 7th of March near the three-hundred-acre League Against Cruel Sports’ Baronsdown Sanctuary on Exmoor. While the video isn’t as dramatic as some that have hit the internet this past ‘hunting season’, it encapsulates […]

Illegal to cut a hedge in Spring? Yes – and no…

Nest. Photo by Luke Brugger on Unsplash

Despite what the weather outside might suggest (it’s cool and wet across the UK as of writing), wild birds – in an admirable show of resilience – will soon be breeding again. This is the start of a critical time of the year when birds are looking for safe places to nest and to rebuild […]

Ex-gamekeeper guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to magpies

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) is reporting that former gamekeeper (turned labourer, apparently) Alexander Hamilton was sentenced to a five-year ban from owning and keeping animals and was given 100 hours of community service at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, 5 March. 64-year-old Hamilton pled guilty to trapping […]

Industrial scale of pheasant shooting revealed

Two pheasants flying

The industrial scale of rearing pheasants for the shooting industry has been uncovered by Who Owns England’s Guy Shrubsole in a series of FOI requests on the poultry registry made to APHA (the Animal and Plant Health Agency). Every year the shooting industry releases around 40 million Common Pheasants and 10 million Red-legged Partridges for […]

Fox Killer Baits: Illegal, reckless, and probably a scam.

Protect the Wild was recently sent a link to a product allegedly on sale in the UK – Fox Killer Baits – that is illegal to use here, is supported by reckless and negligent advice – and to top it all it seems to be being sold on what may well be a scam site anyway!

Roaming to Ukraine: Part Two – back out to Ukraine again

Back in early 2022, Protect the Wild was contacted by a member of the Roaming Sabs who asked if we could help provide a grant towards a vehicle – a vehicle which was going to be driven from Manchester right across Europe into a war zone to help animals! While we typically fund monitor groups […]

Equipment Fund #19: North East Hunt Monitors

As an organisation we do prefer to look forward rather than look back, but it has been a good month for the Equipment Fund – and ‘Equipment Fund 2.0’! How so? Because we recently saw paid subscriptions on our Substack soar over the 600 mark! That’s great news because every single penny we raise from […]

Hunting: A Case for Change. Thousands of foxes still being chased or killed

Protect the Wild recently published “Hunting: A Case for Change“, a 50-page report that offers a thorough examination of hunting practices during the 2022/23 season, focusing predominantly on fox, hare, and deer hunting in England and Wales. Author Glen Black utilised a combination of online data from anti-hunting groups, public reports, and activist observations to […]

We’re launching the Protecting the Wild Support Network

We have some news to announce – and we’re pretty excited about it: the launch of the Protecting the Wild Support Network (aka – to save our typing fingers – ‘the support network’). What (we’re hoping you’ll be asking) is the ‘support network’? Well, thank you for your interest. The Support Network is our way […]

Derwent Hunt filmed trespassing on nature reserve

Video evidence clearly showing the Derwent Hunt blatantly taking a pack of hounds onto a much-loved local nature reserve has been shared with Protect the Wild. On Saturday 27 January this year, North Yorkshire’s Derwent Hunt was filmed riding with hounds into Chafer Wood, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) Nature Reserve which is described as […]

Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund #18: Teesside Anti Blood Sports

It was only a few weeks ago that we wrote about reaching a major milestone: 500 paid subscribers here on Substack. It’s quite something to be able to report now that the figure has jumped to just over 600! That’s incredibly motivating for us, because every single penny we raise from paid subs goes straight […]

The Secret Monitor: East Yorkshire’s Holderness Hunt

The Secret Monitor

Damaging stories from inside hunting, shooting, and the badger cull have been circulating for years. Everything from breaking the law to assaults or harassment of monitors and the public but a police force seemingly happy to ‘look the other way’. But there is always someone watching, always someone listening. The Secret Monitor. In this post […]

122 Hen Harriers confirmed ‘missing’ or illegally killed in UK since 2018

Hen Harrier and chick

Using data from the RSPB and Natural England, the UK’s leading website on the illegal persecution of birds of prey, Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK), published the details yesterday of each of 122 Hen Harriers confirmed ‘missing’ or illegally killed in the UK since 2018. Hen Harriers are the most persecuted bird of prey in Britain […]