Changing the narrative
Changing the Narrative Changing the narrative around shooting birds The shooting industry relies on tropes it constantly uses to justify itself. We need to recognise those when we seen them and to challenge them at every opportunity. Go to ‘End Shooting’ main page ‘It’s normal to hunt‘. Killing birds for fun, for profit, for a […]
Ending Bird Shooting – let’s talk about foxes
How do you persuade an audience that is primarily interested in fighting foxhunting to become as concerned about the bird shooting industry? Oddly enough (and as a lifelong birder I’m writing this through slightly gritted teeth as it were), it’s probably not by talking about birds… Last year Keep the Ban, which was built […]
Why do you call bird shooting an industry?
Why do we call bird shooting an ‘industry’? Why does Protect the Wild call the ‘bird shooting industry’ (a blanket term for shooting estates, shooting syndicates, shooting lobbyists, gun and ammunition manufacturers and suppliers etc) an ‘industry’ exactly? Because that’s exactly what it is – an industry. And it’s huge. We all need to move […]
Why must the shooting industry have a ‘predator control exit strategy’?
Why must the shooting industry have a ‘predator control exit strategy’? The definition of an ‘exit strategy’ is quite simple. It’s a pre-planned means of leaving a current situation, either after a predetermined objective has been achieved or as a strategy to mitigate failure. It’s often said that “an organisation or individual without an exit […]
Why don’t you support grouse moor licencing?
Why doesn’t Protect the Wild support grouse moor licencing? The grouse shooting industry is not the ‘glorious’ tradition shooting lobbyists like to term it. It is the slaughter of up to half a million grouse a year, the destruction of countless native predators in traps and snares, illegal raptor persecution and poison baits, and the […]
Stink Pits
Stink Pits 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 and are pits or piles of dumped rotting mammal and bird carcasses which literally ‘stink’ and are used as bait […]
Why won’t you use the term ‘gamebird’?
Why won’t you use the term ‘gamebird’? Protect the Wild won’t use the term ‘gamebird’ because how we describe the living beings around us is hugely important. When it comes to our wildlife, we’ve all inherited a grubby pile of loaded, value-laden terms that have been handed down to us and that we now repeat […]
The Killing Continues: Shooting industry driving raptor persecution
The latest RSPB Birdcrime Report confirms that the shooting industry continues to drive the illegal persecution of birds of prey, listing 108 confirmed incidents across Britain in 2021. The tally of dead birds includes 50 Common Buzzards, 16 Red Kites, seven Peregrines and three Goshawks. Birdcrime is the UK’s only annual and comprehensive report of […]
No ‘licencing lifeline’ for Grouse Moors
No ‘licencing lifeline’ for Grouse Moors Grouse shooting is not a ‘glorious’ tradition. It is about death and destruction: the slaughter of up to half a million grouse a year, the killing of countless native predators in traps and snares, illegal raptor persecution, and the burning of internationally-scarce habitats. All so that a few people […]
No public subsidy of shotgun licences
No public subsidy of shotgun licences Go straight to sign Did you know that we taxpayers subsidise the true cost of shotgun licences? Funding for police forces in England and Wales comes from us, the taxpayer. Forces have complained for years about underfunding. Yet one of the police’s duties is to administer shotgun licences. Under […]
Protect the Wild End Shooting
A few weeks ago Keep the Ban became Protect the Wild. Our change is far more than just a re-brand. While foxes and enforcing the ban on foxhunting will always remain a key focus, with Protect the Wild we are expanding what we do. Part of that will see us bringing our drive, our commitment […]
RSPB Investigations Officer: Reflections on a poisoning
RSPB Investigations Officer: Reflections on a poisoning “Another issue that keeps rearing its head is the lack of any consequences for Stroud’s employers.” On 5 October 2022 gamekeeper Matthew Stroud was convicted of a long list of offences at Norwich Magistrates Court including killing protected birds – yet he escaped a prison sentence. Now Tom […]
End Shooting
End Bird Shooting Protect the Wild wants to end bird shooting Bird shooting is: Catastrophic for animals – not just for the millions of birds killed by ‘sportsmen’ each year of course but also for the mammals that are snared and trapped in huge numbers on shooting estates. Terrible for us – because of the […]
RSPB’s review of lowland ‘gamebird’ shooting: “Bleak picture”
Has the RSPB finally run out of patience with the shooting industry? The country’s largest bird charity speaks out – but in an oddly low-key way. Tied for over a century to a Constitution enshrined in 1904 which insists it should be ‘neutral’ on shooting, the RSPB (by far the most important and most effective […]
FAQs
Protect the Wild FAQs What is Protect the Wild’s mission statement? Our mission statement is to empower people to protect British wildlife. We do that in different ways including: supporting front line groups; providing information through our Substack, animations, and social media; and campaigning hard for legislative change. Ultimately our aim is to end hunting, […]
News
NEWS Breaking news on our work and issues affecting wildlife. We update our site regularly so check back here or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also follow us on our socials to keep up to date. Latest newsFoxShootingRaptor PersecutionBadgerDeerInvestigateCampaign Latest news Cat found nearly ‘cut in two’ after a snare wrapped around his stomach […]
Fox facts
Facts about the Red Fox Scientific name: Vulpes vulpes At a glance The Red Fox has the largest natural distribution of any land mammal except human beings. The UK population is around 375,000, perhaps one-third are resident in our towns and cities. Thousands are snared every year to protect pheasants and grouse for shooting. One […]
Raptor Persecution Hilborough Estate
Raptor Persecution on the Hilborough Estate In April 2022, the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT) supported by Protect The Wild, documented illegal raptor persecution on the Hilborough Estate in Norfolk. The Hilborough Estate’s reputation has been built upon and protected by its royal connections and historical conservation credentials. The Van Cutsem family, friends of Princes Charles, […]
Moscar Estate files
MOSCAR ESTATE FILES On this page we will be showcasing three separate investigations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJAO1pl6MQ0 Moscar’s wildlife crime and cruelty on National Trust land In spring 2020, Moscar’s gamekeepers were investigated by the RSCPA after using a fatally wounded call bird in a Larsen trap, trapping hypothermic fox cubs and setting traps on badger setts – […]
Grouse Moors and the ‘Licencing Lifeline’
Grouse Moors and the ‘Licencing Lifeline’ The grouse shooting industry is not a ‘glorious’ tradition. It is the slaughter of up to half a million grouse a year, the destruction of countless native predators in traps and snares, illegal raptor persecution and poison baits, and the burning of internationally-scarce habitats. All so that a few […]
Revealed: widespread burning of peatlands despite government ban
As an avid hiker, I sometimes stumble across scorched earth in the middle of nowhere: heather moorland deliberately burnt by landowners for grouse shooting. And as an animal rights activist, I’m acutely aware of the way the shooting industry uses vast swathes of land for hunting and shooting. So new statistics about the extent of […]
The danger of plastic six-pack rings
The danger of plastic six-pack rings to wildlife Images of sea turtles and gulls trapped in plastic six-pack rings are ubiquitous on the internet. Terrestrial wildlife isn’t safe either, though. Squirrels, hedgehogs and even cats have all been found tangled in the plastic rings. First introduced by the retail industry in 1961, they were identified […]
Mass grave of pheasants found on Duke of Somerset’s land
Protesters on the Duke of Somerset’s land stumbled across a mass grave packed with the corpses of pheasants this May. Protect the Wild joined hundreds of activists to take part in a mass trespass close to the duke’s Berry Pomeroy castle. The action was part of the wider Right To Roam campaign for greater access […]