Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund #1: Cheshire Borderland Monitors
The Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund provides equipment like radios or cameras to individuals or groups who are working in the field to protect wildlife. We have asked each recipient to explain what they do and how they are using the equipment we have provided – not only to show supporters how their donations are […]
Animal Rescue: Charlie’s Place
Run by Claire and Will, Charlie’s Place is a small grass-roots animal sanctuary set on a plot of land in the Peak District which (to quote a flyer we picked up) gives “a forever home to animals in need”.
Cottesmore Hunt rider who kicked and punched horse due to stand trial
Disgraced hunter and ex-primary school teacher Sarah Moulds is due to stand trial on 22 August 2023. She was filmed hitting and kicking a horse, and is charged with two offences under the Animal Welfare Act. Moulds was a field rider with the Cottesmore Hunt on 6 November 2021. Her horse, Bruce, wandered a few […]
This community urgently needs your help to save badgers
Despite being a protected animal, badgers are perhaps our most persecuted species. One community in Saltdean, near Brighton, is urgently trying to save a sett of badgers from developers, and they need your help. Protect the Wild spoke to resident Debbie Julians, who, along with her neighbours, is trying to raise enough money to buy […]
Reclaim Our Moors Walk 2023 (Moscar Moor)
On August 13th, the day after the Inglorious 12th (and a Sunday so no shooting was taking place), I joined a group of ‘Reclaim Our Moors’ protestors on a short hike from Redmires Reservoir near Sheffield up onto the notorious Moscar Moor. A grouse shooting estate, Moscar has become a national symbol of the public […]
Sam Jones of the Cottesmore Hunt pleads not guilty to assault and illegal hunting
Sam Jones, huntsman of the notorious Cottesmore Hunt, has plead not guilty to assault. Jones appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on 11 August. Police had charged him in July with common assault after his horse leapt a fence while a sab was standing on the other side. As a result, the horse hit the saboteur. […]
Avian Flu confirmed in a Red Grouse
The Animal and Plant Health Agency has updated its spreadsheet “Avian Flu in wild birds: 2023‘ to include the news that surely no one wanted to hear: a case of Avian Flu in a Red Grouse. The details are – to say the least – scant. All that is known is that a Red Grouse […]
GUILTY: Huntsman Chris Woodward in court yet again
Chris Woodward, ex-huntsman for the Wynnstay Hunt, has pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett near Malpas, north Wales. The guilty plea comes after the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) released footage back in February 2023, showing two men escaping on a quad bike after they were confronted by sabs. The men were named as […]
Hen Harrier ‘brood meddling’ slammed by Wild Justice
The campaign group Wild Justice (run by Dr Mark Avery, a former Director of Conservation at the RSPB, Dr Ruth Tingay, who set up and runs the highly-influential Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) blog, and Chris Packham, the most popular conservationist in the whole of the UK) has just published Meddling on the Moors, a new […]
Have Your Say: Government Firearms Licencing Consultation
The Home Office is seeking views on recommendations for changes to the legislation on firearms licensing, possible changes to the system of referees, and changes in other areas of firearm licensing. The online consultation, which consists of 20 ‘Yes/No’ questions and a ‘personal details’ section takes just a few minutes to complete. It is “open […]
TRIAL DATE FIXED: Avon Vale terrierman to face jury
A trial date has been set for notorious Avon Vale terrierman Alex Warden. He will go to trial in Salisbury Crown Court on 21 December 2023. He is complicit in hounds tearing apart one fox, and chasing another. The Avon Vale Hunt made national headlines when a video was passed onto the Hunt Saboteurs Association […]
Evil brothers buried charity cyclist in stink pit on shooting estate
Last week the Daily Record reported that a speeding drunk-driver, Alexander McKellar, 31, had pleaded guilty to causing the death of charity cyclist Tony Parsons by hitting the 63-year-old with his vehicle on the A82 near Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute (Scotland), on September 29, 2017. He and his twin brother Robert McKellar both […]
SumUp denies hunts card payment services
It’s been one blow after another for fox hunters these past couple of years. Struggling to stay afloat, a number of hunts have shut down or amalgamated. And now they have been hit with yet another financial woe: they have been banned from taking card payments at their fundraising events. This is a major victory […]
Chepstow Show won’t review decision to host Curre and Llangibby Hunt
Despite protests by local residents, organisers from the Chepstow Show have told campaigners they will not be reviewing a decision to invite the Curre and Llangibby Foxhounds to parade there on August 12th (coincidentally also the date that shooters will again open fire on Red Grouse on moorland shooting estates). Held at Chepstow Racecourse, the […]
Sad Badgers: Protesting the badger cull in Oxford
Yesterday Protect the Wild joined masked- and badger-suited members of the Oxford Badger Coalition and Oxfordshire Badger Group on the streets of Oxford. Under sunny skies and humid conditions (which made wearing a furry, cumbersome badger suit very hard work indeed so kudos to Betty and the rest!) we found ourselves in the midst of […]
Defra cosies up to grouse shooting industry
Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), the government department “responsible for improving and protecting the environment”, has announced the appointment of a grouse moor owner to what it describes as a ‘key role’. Heather Hancock (pictured above), a former Food Standards Agency chair and former Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park […]
Police slap a newly merged hunt with an ‘ASBO’ before it’s even got going
Police in Hertfordshire have slapped the Puckeridge and Essex Union Hunt with a Community Protection Notice (CPN). The requirements of the notice are extensive and will hamper the pack’s week-to-week hunting. On 26 July, Hertfordshire Constabulary announced it had issued a CPN to the Puckeridge and Essex Union Hunt. The stipulations of the notice include […]
Four men given suspended prison sentences for hare coursing
Four men have been given the most severe sentences for hare coursing that we have seen in the UK. The men were hare coursing in Spalding on 9 November 2022, and were arrested by Lincolnshire Rural Crime officers. All four pleaded guilty to the charges against them. The four men, aged between 33 and 40, […]
BREAKING: United Utilities to end grouse shooting
As reported by Alex Thomson of Channel 4, “United Utilities, the largest corporate landowner in England, is pulling grouse shooting on its moorland by way of not renewing its leases when they come to an end. Its grouse shooting leases cover many high profile moorland landscapes, including the Forest of Bowland AONB, the Goyt Valley, […]
Cattistock Hunt escapes prosecution despite railway line fox chase
On 10 July, North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs reported that the Cattistock Hunt will not be prosecuted for trespassing onto railway tracks. This shows police bias in action: hunts continually get away with trespassing on railways, while members of the public doing the same face prosecution. The incident in question took place on 4 February 2023, […]
Cottesmore huntsman Sam Jones charged with assault
Cottesmore huntsman Sam Jones has finally been charged by the police after he trampled a hunt saboteur with his horse. The incident took place on 11 February 2023. Jones was arrested on 14 February, and was finally charged with common assault on 14 July. He will appear in Leicester Magistrates’ Court on 11 August. The […]
Oxfordshire: ‘Sad Badger’ protests government cull strategy
‘Sad Badger’, an activist from the Oxford Badger Coalition, sat under the Buttercross in Witney’s Market Square on the 17th of July to protest the government’s badger cull with placards saying ‘I am sad’ and ‘Oxfordshire’s badger shame’. The flawed and highly contested ‘badger cull’ is run by the Department for Environment Food and Rural […]
With only one fox hunting pack left in Kent, the clock is ticking on hunting in the county
Hunt saboteurs in Kent are celebrating the news that there will only be one hunt left in the county for the 2023/24 fox hunting season. On 12 July, West Kent Sabs wrote: “Over the last few months we have been inundated with information from sources within the hunting community that there was a significant amalgamation […]
Another not guilty verdict: a stark reminder that the Hunting Act is broken
John Holliday, ex-huntsman of the Belvoir Hunt, was found not guilty of illegal hunting on 11 July. His case is a stark reminder that the Hunting Act needs scrapping and replacing with a proper anti-hunting law. Holliday was on trial for killing a fox on 15 January 2022. Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs reported: “The court decided […]
White-tailed Eagle: first chick born in England since 1780
In a remarkable triumph of forward-thinking conservation and persistence, a White-tailed Eagle chick has hatched in England for the first time in more than 240 years. The location of the nest is being kept secret. Once widespread across Great Britain the huge birds of prey were widely persecuted. The last known English pair bred on […]
Police take no further action against Kent hunt that killed a fox in someone’s garden
Police have taken no further action against a hunt that killed a fox despite hunt saboteurs capturing the incident on video. On 14 January, the East Kent with West Street Hunt killed a fox in a residential garden in Westmarch, near Canterbury. As Protect the Wild reported at the time, hounds killed the fox after […]
Scottish court convicts Duke of Buccleuch’s Hunt supporter of assaulting a hunt saboteur
Jedburgh Sheriff Court convicted a Duke of Buccleuch’s Hunt supporter of assaulting a hunt saboteur during a meet in September 2022. Local paper Border Telegraph reported on 8 July that John Thomson plead guilty to two charges after spitting, shouting, and threatening to kill a member of Scottish Borders Hunt Saboteurs. The incident happened during […]
White-tailed Eagles poisoned in Northern Ireland
A reward of £5,000 has been offered for information following the poisoning of two White-tailed Eagles in Co Antrim. The birds were found on Glenwherry Hillfarm on May 15th and a post-mortem examination revealed both birds had ingested the insecticide bendiocarb. Conservationists monitoring one of the birds, which was fitted with a satellite tag, became […]
GUILTY: Former Avon Vale Hunt thugs charged with illegal hunting
Two ex-members of the Avon Vale Hunt pleaded guilty to illegal hunting at Swindon Magistrates Court on Wednesday 5 July. Aaron Fookes, who was whipper-in, and Stuart Radbourne, who was hunt master, were charged along with a third man, terrierman Alex Warden, after they were caught on video terrorising two foxes. Fookes also pleaded guilty […]
Wynnstay huntsman pleads guilty of threatening behaviour
Wynnstay huntsman Chris Woodward has pleaded guilty to causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress, an offence under the Public Order Act. The hunter rode his horse at a Cheshire Monitors volunteer during a fox hunting meet on 7 January 2023. Woodward galloped towards the monitor on his horse, almost knocking the man to the ground. […]
VICTORY: County Down Staghounds bites the dust
Hunt saboteurs in Northern Ireland are celebrating as news comes in that County Down Staghounds is disbanding. Hunt Saboteurs NI announced: “The criminal County Down Staghounds have decided to disband, their years of illegal carting, killing pets and causing horrific pain to wildlife is over. Good riddance you bunch of murdering scumbags.” Meanwhile, Action Against […]
Do you live in Cheshire or north Wales? You can save fox cubs from being murdered
Nine out of ten people have never heard of cubbing. Beginning later this summer, cubbing is an illegal practice, where hunts across the country train their young hounds by hunting and killing fox cubs. Cubbing marks the beginning of the hunting season, and runs from August to October. While the young hounds are trained, hunting […]
Nazi salute hunt supporter pleads guilty to harassment
A hunt supporter filmed performing a Nazi salute during a Wynnstay Hunt meet has pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment. Protect the Wild reported in February on Ian Jones, who performed a ‘sieg heil’ salute at Cheshire Monitors. The incident occurred during a Wynnstay Hunt meet on 7 February, with a member of the monitor group […]
Illegally set spring trap causes death of Barn Owl
North Yorkshire Police have reported on the sentencing of a man after the death of a Barn Owl trapped illegally on an allotment plot in Hunmanby, near Scarborough. On 8 April 2023, a dog walker discovered a badly-injured adult Barn Owl caught in a spring-operated trap in the allotments at Sands Lane, Hunmanby. Despite the […]
Gamekeeper Francis Addison convicted in dead goshawks investigation
On the 29th of June, Francis Addison (72) a part-time gamekeeper of South Park, Weeting, pleaded guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ court to NINETEEN charges in connection with a multi-agency raptor persecution investigation led by Suffolk Police, including the possession of five shot Goshawks. As Protect the Wild reported back in January this year, the bodies […]
Another hare hunting pack has reportedly folded
The Hunt Saboteurs Association reported on 28 June that the Leadon Vale Basset Hounds had folded. It said the pack, which was one of the few remaining basset packs in the country, had come under increasing pressure by sab groups in recent years. And its demise is a sign of the times for hare hunting. […]
Melbreak Huntsman Christopher Nixon convicted of assault (Part Two)
As we reported in Part One of this article, in June 2023 Christopher Nixon (pictured above), a huntsman with the notorious Melbreak Hunt was convicted of the common assault of Darren Ward and fined £945. Mr Ward (Darren) had been trying for months to keep the Melbreak and five other fell packs off his land, […]
GOOD NEWS: Wales bans snares
Wales has banned snares. It is the first country in the UK to do so, and campaigners say the decision puts pressure on the rest of the Britain to follow suit. The Welsh Senedd unanimously agreed to pass the Agriculture (Wales) Bill on 27 June. The broad bill covers a range of measures related to […]
Melbreak Huntsman Christopher Nixon convicted of assault (Part One)
On the 12th of June, Christopher Nixon, the Melbreak Hunt’s huntmaster, was convicted of the common assault of Darren Ward, and fined a total of £945. The assault by Nixon, who was challenged while walking with seven dogs on land owned by Mr Ward, was recorded on a phone and used as evidence in court. […]
Four hunters plead not guilty after hounds kill fox in private garden
Four men from the West Norfolk Foxhounds have pleaded not guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ Court. Three were charged with various offences after hounds tore apart a fox in a residential garden in Hingham, Norfolk, on 20 February 2023. The men have also been charged, along with another man, for a separate hunting incident in Tittleshall, […]
Freshly unearthed video shows former huntsman torturing a fox cub
On 21 June, the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) publicly shared footage of a man using a terrier to abuse a fox cub. It said the man in the footage was Oliver Thompson, the former huntsman of the Old Berkshire Hunt. The mobile phone footage first shows the man using a spade handle to roughly remove […]
Short-eared Owl shot and killed on Peak District grouse moor
The RSPB has released news of the shooting of a Short-eared Owl on Broomhead Estate, a notorious grouse moor in the Peak District National Park. The incident took place last summer but wasn’t publicised until police investigations had concluded. The shooting was witnessed and recorded on a mobile phone by an individual birding on the […]
Judge hands hit-and-run hunt supporter a suspended sentence
Angela Jarrom, who ran a hunt saboteur down in October 2022, pleaded guilty on 15 June. But the sab that was hit said her sentence will do little to cool acts of violence at hunt meets. Jarrom targetted Lisa Jaffray during a meet of the Cottesmore Hunt on 25 October 2022. After spotting Lisa, Jarrom […]
Cat found nearly ‘cut in two’ after a snare wrapped around his stomach
When Harry arrived back at his home after five days, his return should have delighted Marion Brownlie. Instead, she was shocked. Harry, a farm cat living with Brownlie, had a deep welt across his abdomen. And it was the result of a snare. Brownlie lives in St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, on Scotland’s eastern coast. Harry had […]
Natural England’s Tony Juniper: overseeing the devastation of England’s biodiversity
The chair of Natural England (the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England) has hypocritically argued that England “is going to have to work much harder” if it wants to meet biodiversity targets. In his role, Tony Juniper is actively responsible for the loss of biodiversity. The Tories’ biodiversity targets have already been called […]
Disgraced hunter Ollie Finnegan fails to show up for court
Cheshire huntsman Ollie Finnegan failed to turn up at Crewe Magistrates Court on 13 June 2023. He was due to enter a plea to two charges of hunting a wild mammal with dogs. Cheshire Against Blood Sports (CABS) told Protect the Wild that Finnegan’s legal representation didn’t show up to court, either. The trial has […]
The government has set out its stall over culling badgers, and it’s not pretty
Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey said that she won’t keep to “artificial deadlines” over ending the badger cull. And her words come just as plans were confirmed for tens of thousands more deaths at the hands of farmers. At the opening of the Royal Cornwall Show, Coffey told the public that she believes there is “no […]
Avon Vale Hunt finally charged after digging out foxes
Three members of the Avon Vale Hunt have been charged and will appear in court in July. Footage, which shows the men digging out two foxes and throwing one to hounds, sparked national outrage when it was aired in February. Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs announced on Facebook: “Whipper-in Aaron Fookes charged under Animal Welfare Act and […]
New badger cull licences risk ‘as many as 29,000’ more lives this year
The government has announced licences for 11 new supplementary badger cull zones. While the ‘intensive culls’ are set to end, the new licences show that the massacre of badgers is far from over. Badger cull from Cornwall to Staffordshire Natural England published 11 new supplementary cull licences on 7 June. They cover areas of Avon, […]
“Huge blow for struggling species” as yet more Hen Harriers ‘disappear’
The suspicious disappearance of two rare Hen Harriers is “a huge blow for a struggling species”, the RSPB has said. The UK’s most persecuted bird of prey, an adult Hen Harrier ‘disappeared’ from the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire on 4 May after its satellite-tag stopped transmitting, and another bird went missing in what the […]
Northumberland: Badger suffers excruciating death in snare
Another badger has died unnecessarily after getting caught in an illegal snare in Northumberland. The RSPCA was called out to the badger after receiving a call from the public. The charity said that the snare had become embedded in the creature’s neck and had to be cut out in three different places. The RSPCA’s Rachael […]
Farming industry reports cattle-to-cattle transmission ‘most common form’ of bTB spread
A recent study in Northern Ireland has found that cows are more likely to transmit bovine tuberculosis (bTB) through contact with each other, than through contact with badgers. The research was conducted by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), and the findings were published to the public on 25 May 2023. The researchers used samples […]