The General Election 2024

Vote for the wild

General elections are crucial for wildlife, the environment, and the climate. And that ultimately means for us, too!
How the government decides to support wildlife, its spending plans and its priorities, the legislation it passes or repeals, has a huge impact on everything we love and hold dear.
The general election of July 2024 is especially important. It comes after fourteen years of a government that has shown almost zero interest in the future health of the UK's environment, at a time of crashing biodiversity, and as the climate emergency begins to take hold.
Fourteen years of a government that has refused to stop illegal hunting, has done nothing to rein in the shooting industry, and which launched a war against badgers on behalf of the dairy industry.

Fourteen years in which rivers and coasts have run with raw sewage, emissions targets have been dropped, and green policies reversed.
We have an opportunity to help set the agenda for wildlife and environment for at least the next five years.
Staying home and hoping for the best changes nothing.

We need to get out and vote - vote for the wild.

"Protect the Wild has no intention of suggesting WHO to vote for, but it is important that as many of us as possible do get out and vote. Opportunities to re-write the political landscape and really make a difference to wildlife and the environment don't come around that often - we have that opportunity now. Individually our vote may not seem important but together we can create real change."

Charlie Moores

Protect the Wild Head of Operations and voter

What Protect the Wild is asking for

Protect the Wild wants to see and end to hunting with dogs, to the shooting of birds, and the ‘culling’ of badgers.

We also want to see a ban on snares, wildlife crimes becoming notifiable offences with proper punishments attached, and all development projects made subject to legally binding ecological assessments.

We know that voters have many concerns not related to these issues – the economy, the NHS, and education for example – but our focus is on protecting the wild and these are the major questions we want an incoming government to think about and answer.

Hunting foxes, deer, and hares

Protect the Wild wants hunting with dogs ended.

And will you

a) make hunts listed as registered companies liable when they break the law, and

b) properly enforce the legislation that makes landowners responsible for illegal hunting on their land?

Sign Our Petition for a Proper Hunting Ban

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Read the Hunting of Mammals Bill

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Why not strengthen the Hunting Act?

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Shooting birds for fun or profit

Protect the Wild wants to see a ban on shooting for fun or profit.

Will you join calls for shoots to switch to simulated shooting or clay shooting and put an end to the killing of millions of birds by the shooting industry?

And will you

a) place an immediate ban on the shooting of all Red-listed bird species, and

b) make it mandatory for all shooting estates to keep a record of every animal killed on their estates (by both gamekeepers and clients) during the calendar year and make the data public by June the following year?

Shooting's vulnerabilities

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Changing the narrative

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Bird Shooting FAQs

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Badger Cull

Protect the Wild wants an immediate end to the badger cull.

Will you join us in calling for an end to the killing of a protected species on behalf of the dairy industry?

And will you ensure in the meantime that landowners who kill or harm badgers or damage or block active setts are taken to court and properly prosecuted?

The Badger Cull

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Sign our cull petition

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Badgers and the Law

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Snaring

Protect the Wild wants a ban on snares in England.

Will you ensure that legislation in England is at the very least as strong as the legislation in Wales and Scotland which bans snares in those countries?

Snares are banned across most of Europe but are still allowed in parts of the UK because the shooting industry wants them.

The shooting industry is partly responsible for creating ‘the problem’ they claim needs ‘managing’ with snares. The industry actually supports predator populations by releasing millions of birds in to the countryside every year.

The so-called ‘welfare considerations’ put in place by the shooting industry don’t reflect real-life scenarios and certainly don’t reflect how wild animals behave when they’re caught in traps.

Snaring and the shooting industry

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Animation: It's not just hunts that kill foxes

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Snares and the Law

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Wildlife crime

Protect the Wild wants wildlife crimes to be notifiable offences and become a matter of public record.

Will you join us in ensuring wildlife crimes are treated as seriously as other crimes?

And will you

a) raise the fines and sentencing for wildlife crimes and cruelty to reflect public anger,

b) and work to ensure that every police force works ‘without fear or favour’ with activists on the ground to stamp out routine lawbreaking by hunts?

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