Please sign and share this new e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting.
The petition was submitted by Chris Packham on behalf of Wild Justice on 4 July and got the requisite five signatures to go into the system on 5 July. Quite why it has been stuck in the system for nearly six weeks has not been explained, but other petitions, submitted later, have appeared already. It’s very odd.
Whatever the reason for such a delayed start, when it appeared yesterday at about 430pm (when all three Wild Justice directors were in a meeting with Natural England) it sat still, as if it were taking a deep breath, until about 6pm and then it started a sprint which got the petition past its first target of 10,000 signatures (which will trigger a Westminster government response) before 11pm.
Many of the readers of this blog have seen it all before and will have memories of such e-petitions over recent years. We thought hard about whether or not to launch another – not because we doubt that a ban of driven grouse shooting is the right thing for people, the environment and wildlife, but because we wondered whether a petition was the right way to advance the cause of upland eco-tourism, blanket bog conservation, raptor protection, rewilding, protection of Mountain Hares etc etc. Our judgement is that this is a great time to have another petition and that such a petition is necessary – it’s needed more now than ever before.
That’s our judgement. We don’t see much hope of much action by our current crop of government politicians but that won’t bother us. Only if the public fails to support this petition with even more enthusiasm than earlier ones will we doubt our decision. So, it’s up to you all.
Here’s the link to the petition where you can prove us right – please sign this brand new e-petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting. Wilful blindness is no longer an option.
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Wow. A sprint indeed. It was just under 3,000 when I signed around 7pm last night. I’ve just finished reading Inglorious and you’re absolutely right to push this again now, especially with a government with a majority of one and to influence both public and policy as we head towards an inevitable general election. You closed Inglorious by asking us all to take action. How else can we help?
Chris – it’s had a brilliant start hasn’t it? Thanks for your support.
The only thing needed to get to 100,000 signatures is to spread the word – you can do that with friends, family and colleagues please.
Wild Justice will also be producing leaflets, posters etc to help all do that and we’ll be promoting the petition on social media. Giving Wild Justice a fiver would help us to do that https://wildjustice.org.uk/donate/
Supporting Wild Justice, in my opinion, is the highest priority. However, there are things you can do practically as well to end this disgusting activity.
The League Against Cruel Sports and the National Anti Snaring Campaign both run short, free courses on how to find traps and snares and how to identify whether those traps and snares are legal or otherwise.
OneKind are doing lots of fantastic campaign work in Scotland. They seem to do a good job of publicising photos of snares and traps that people report to them.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association also directly intervene to save many lives on the day.
We did attend Hen Harrier day. Have signed petition and got a letter published, much to my surprise, in today’s ft (14th Aug). Hopefully a good sign. The article that prompted it did not take sides but didn’t emphasise the downside sufficiently.
If we all spread the word fast enough can we get it to target by bird fair? by end august? by end grouse season? come on everyone, sign it and make all your friends sign it……..
20K signed and rising fast…… keep spreading the word folks!
Delayed for six weeks? Delayed until after HHD where it could have been promoted? Can I assume that a FOI request is already on its way?
I’m guessing that not every reader of this blog automatically reads the blog of Raptor Persecution UK, so a copy of that awful picture that they published last night will no doubt get a few more signatures. It should get a lot more.
Left HHD on Sunday with a glow. That glow was firmly extinguished last night.
The cynical part of me thinks this petition deliberately wasn’t released until after Hen Harrier day!
It was great to see it reach 10,000 just before my head hit the pillow. Well done to you all!
Signed and sent to an awful lot of people in my address book, most of whom I think will sign it..
I came across the petition at about 11.20 pm last night when I came off my shift. It was at over 11,000 then. This morning after my shower stuck the PC on and checked and it was well over 16,000. It’s put on several thousand signatures after midnight!!! It looks as if it’s getting about a signature a second at this moment. I’m very confident it will get over 100,000 signatures the question is how long will it take?
A wee suggestion as LACS supported the last BDGS petition and that put on thousands and thousands in a very short space of time you could try asking them to do so again – will be interesting to see their response as for the second time running they’ve refused to support the petition to get an independent economic study of driven grouse shooting despite this being part of their previous work against grouse moors. IF they support you will get you there a little quicker, if they don’t why not this time?
Re the economics petition it too was a bit slow in being passed about 2.5 weeks this time when it’s usually a week. I think it can actually help the BDGS one. If Wild Justice issues a public challenge to the GWCT, MA, NGO, BASC, CA and the five or more English Moorland Forums to sign a petition to see if DGS really creates rather than destroys jobs then their almost certain refusal to do so will show their claims about it being vital for rural communities are a lie. DGS actually kills jobs and those who support DGS know it. I wanted the petition to be used tactically this time to start getting the point more into the public arena, the media and DGS’ friends are still claiming it’s necessary to keep it for economic reasons which after Ben MacDonald’s absolute savaging of that argument way back in April is laughable. If WJ can use it that way at some stage to help the BDGS petition I’d be in seventh heaven!
This is marvellous, well done and as soon as the pay goes in the account and I get a stamp a cheque will be on its way to WJ. It’s like old times again!!!
This is a good way to keep the pressure on a despicable industry.
Now that the RSPB have decided to jump off of the fence a little bit what with Martin Harper’s recent video and their appeal to directly support their brilliant Investigations Team, do you think that they will ask their members to fully support your petition. I have donated to their appeal, as will have many others. I would urge them to positively
come on board at this crucial time.
I’m sure the RSPB know that a ban on DGS is the only sensible option but I suspect they are allowing themselves to be tethered by the royal connection. It would be useful if our royals distanced themselves from this form of shooting and all its attendant, negative issues. I am also contributing to the current appeal for the investigations team but I would like them to stop muddying the water with this licensing nonsense.
Crathie – where the Golden Eagle was photographed with the trap around its legs – borders Balmoral Castle grounds! If the Royals don’t issue a press release condemning this then I think we know where they stand!
The RSPB lose potential supporters like me by campaigning for this non-starter, time-wasting licensing rubbish.
The delay has worked in our favour as its appearance coincided with the images of the Golden Eagle flying with its foot in a snare plastered all over social media. As well as sharing the petition, share those images so everyone can see what we’re fighting against.
Thank you Mark, Chris and Ruth for keeping the pressure one. This petition should appear every year until the government listens or the grouse estates get their act together.
If the Petition was deliberately delayed, whoever did that must be kicking themselves that it’s now coincided with the awful image of the Golden Eagle.
You dont have to wait for this to reach 100k signatures, just read the below instead which sets out the facts.
https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/104441#response-threshold
S – well that sets out Defra’s opinion from 4 years ago actually.
I find it rather strange that the argument about providing employment is used when this argument was rejected (with vastly more jobs at stake) in the case of coal and steel.
I’ve contacted the Save Me Trust led by Brian May to see if they will promote on their Facebook page. Their Facebook site has nearly 97,000 followers and they ran a piece on banning driven grouse shooting on 12 August. I also tried to post it on Ricky Gervais’ Facebook page who has a reach of 4 million. He routinely posts about animal cruelty and hunting.
Now Ricky Gervais would most certainly be a catch!
Maybe he’d be open to a direct contact from Chris?
Try looking at petition map of Ban DGS. Interesting, the greatest % of constituents signing are mostly in grouse moor areas.
Vic – yes, that’s normal, but also in RSPB strongholds of Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, Devon and a few green cities such as Brighton and Bristol. It’s fun looking at the patterns – but this time around they look similar to other times (and even to most environmental petitions).
I think the signature rate is going up faster than previous petition, one can only hope that there is a more positive parliamentary response this time. My MP will know what I think for sure.