Red Squirrels threatened by renewable energy project

The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW) has launched a campaign against a planned renewable ‘energy park’ that threatens one of the few remaining Red Squirrel populations in Wales. The Red Squirrels of the Bryn Arau Duon forest are one of only three surviving colonies in the country.  Once a common sight in […]

Hunts are still menacing minks and otters across England and Wales

Mink hunting season is underway and sabs and monitors have been busy ensuring that the UK’s remaining mink hunts are unable to reach their prey. Minks are hunted from March all the way through to September, coinciding with their breeding season. Hunts often leave young mink – known as kits – motherless and sure to […]

Five reasons the Planning and Infrastructure bill will be disastrous for British wildlife

Labour’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill aims to allow companies to pay to trash the British countryside. It will do away with existing checks and balances in the planning system and establish a legal framework allowing developers to destroy irreplaceable natural ecosystems. Corporations will pay into a planned Nature Restoration Fund in order to ‘offset’ the […]

Violent terrierman convicted after police find dead otter in his freezer

A notorious hunter received a pitiful sentence on 2 September after he was found guilty under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Police raided Darren Fisher’s house on 26 February and found a dead otter in his freezer, as well as dead foxes in his garage. According to the BBC, the man is now a gamekeeper. […]

Minks and Otters at risk as hunting season starts

Summer is the season for mink hunting in England and Wales. Less well-known than fox hunting, the illegal bloodsport is often used as a guise for hunting Otters. There are nine minkhound packs left in the UK, and saboteurs are on the ground to stop them in their tracks. Mother mink give birth to their […]

What is mink hunting?

Mink Hunting: what is it and what happens on a mink hunt Mink hunting with hounds only began in an organised way after Otters became a protected species across England and Wales in 1978. Otter hunting has a centuries-long history in the UK but has always been a relatively minor pursuit when compared to deer, […]