50,000!!
Pardon my excitement – but I am excited!
A couple of years ago the idea that there would be popular support for banning the favoured hobby of the rich – blasting Red Grouse out of the air for fun – seemed somewhat optimistic. Now it seems like a popular movement.
Thank you to all who have supported this campaign to date with your signatures, your Twitter tweets, your Facebook shares, your emails and your words of encouragement. Thank you especially to Chris Packham, the League Against Cruel Sports, Bill Oddie, Raptor Persecution UK, Alan Cranston who manages the Ban Driven Grouse Shooting Facebook page, Birdwatch magazine, Birders Against Wildlife Crime, Rare Bird Alert and last but by no means least, @Team4Nature300 for all you have done. But there are also lots and lots of individuals, some of whom I am gradually getting to know, who have each taken actions which are on the face of it small ones but which add up to a strong movement for change overall.
On Friday we passed 48,000, yesterday we passed 49,000 and this morning we have passed 50,000 signatures. We have momentum!
We have 11 weeks to get another 50,000 signatures which will probably trigger a Westminster Hall debate in parliament on the future of grouse shooting. I’d like to see driven grouse shooting banned completely as it is underpinned by wildlife crime and an unsustainable land use which imposes costs on the rest of society. And grouse shooting is just a silly sport – killing wild birds for fun – it can’t expect to exist as a pastime for the rich few if it does so much damage to the ecology and the finances of the country as a whole. But a debate would open up the subject completely and bring it to the attention of many more ordinary people and many more decision makers. We are calling for change and they will have to listen.
We are only half way – but we do have momentum – and we are right – and we will win!
Please sign this e-petition to get that debate in parliament.
And if you would like to help by donating to help promote the petition through leaflets and social media then please have a look here.
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Wow! Didn’t think i’d crawl out of bed after a late night and be greeted by that already! Just plain wow!
Brilliant Mark – onwards to the next 50,000! I can’t believe the speed that signatures are coming…..
And can I encourage folk to donate towards the costs of printing leaflets which could play a big part in achieving the 100,000 goal….even if you have donated before, please donate again (I’ve just done so).
Quite apart from getting a debate in parliament, the e-petition is an excellent vehicle for raising the profile of hen harrier persecution and building a movement to achieve so much more in our ravaged uplands.
Nick
Mark – well done on getting halfway! There is a free newspaper here in the peak called the Peak Advertiser. It is delivered to 30,000 homes and businesses every fortnight. Might be a good vehicle for your leaflets? Although they may choose not to carry it I suppose. Worth a crack?
Congratulations to all….we do need some good news in our lives.
Now we’re motoring! Congratulations to CP for his Facebook comment.
Mark, you know I’m a nut for palindromes! Here are some palindromic wing primes to be aiming for (these are ones with all numbers the same except the central one):
77377, 77477, 77977, 1114111, 1117111
I like the ones over 100001
Well done Mark, any chance of an attachment flier which we could all send out containing the information from the leaflet format, maybe with wording added that ‘if we have circulated you already and you have signed please forward to others’ on the basis that if half of the 50,000 got two more to sign then we’d be there. Also because there are some folk that i’ve circulated and want to remind or goad into doing more!
Mike – yes, but not for a while. Am a bit tied up at the moment – as are all my helpers. We’ll get to it!
Smokin!
Congratulations Mark
I’ve tweeted recently about getting 9 friends and family signing up in one week and that they probably say ‘Pete’s on his soap box again’ but drip feeding info, gradually explaining rather than just telling, over a period of months does have the desired effect. So, they might still think I am on a soapbox, but I’m on a soapbox about a campaign that I am pleased and proud to be supporting.
Well done everyone, keep on with the drip feeding!
Thank you for providing a vehicle through which my views on upland and marginal land use can finally be expressed. Our countryside and wildlife deserves better. It is time to Ban Driven Grouse Shooting.
There is far to much killing all in the name of sport, I can’t codone any animal being murdered in ther hundreds for the sick pleasure it gives the men with the guns,
The Scotish land owner’s do this for the rich men who want to shoot a poor defencless bird driven from its cover with either dogs or men with sticks beating the heather, Even in England they have pheasent shoots, where birds are raised just for the “sport” of killing them after they have been raised by humans, so show no fear.
This must be stopped for the sake of all wildlife
All barbaric so-called “sports” should be banned. This would be a good start.
Animals of all kinds deserved respect for their lives!!!
It’s the rich that do this and they are up the politicians arse so it will be very difficult to ban this it’s pathetic grown people killing poor birds pathetic