And now from AA to RSPB

No, not those nice people who fix your car by the side of the road, not those nice people who help you give up the booze, but those people, who sent me thousands of postcards disapproving, in no uncertain terms, of the RSPB’s position on culling Ruddy Ducks many years ago – Animal Aid. Animal…

A good week for the friends of the Hen Harrier

It’s difficult to keep up – there’s so much going on:   Severn Trent say ‘yes’ to Hen Harrier Day in Peak District. Hen Harrier Day in Peak District reaches capacity – any more attendees will jam the car parks… August Birdwatch has ‘Stop killing our Harriers’ on cover. M&S shelve plans to sell Red…

Does driven grouse shooting rely on criminal activity?

There are many reasons to be opposed to the intensive management of our uplands to provide high-cost days shooting.  But let us set aside the arguments on water quality, destruction of blanket blogs, carbon loss and the scale of legal killing of wildlife, and think only of the illegal killing of birds of prey –…

NEWS: M&S drop grouse sales in response to threatened boycott

Ben Webster in The Times: Game Over: M&S takes grouse off the shelves after boycott threat. M&S won’t sell grouse this year and tests new code for grouse moors after boycott threat http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environment/article4156994.ece … We did that!  Consumer power. Well done M&S!!  I’ll be shopping with you again later today.  And we’ll be watching you carefully…

Another man’s blog

This is a link to an excellent post on Chris Townsend’s excellent blog. What he describes is the Scottish version of Walshaw Moor and the industrialisation of the north of England’s hills. Sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting in England.   I hope Chris will write a Guest Blog for here soon.

What they say 10:

Bob Elliot, Head of Investigations at the RSPB, is the latest to be interviewed ahead of Hen Harrier Day.  His interview is available to hear on the BAWC soundcloud   ‘Without doubt there is widespread illegal persecution of Hen Harriers’ ‘If someone’s intent on killing them, then the chances of us being in the right…

Breaking news…Government forgot about the general election!!!

I have just (17:19) received this email:   Dear Dr Mark Avery, Unfortunately we’ve had to bring forward the closing date of your petition Ban driven grouse shooting from 28 May 2015 to 30 March 2015 The dissolution of this Parliament has now been scheduled for 30 March 2015, and it’s not possible for petitions…

Hen Harrier Day updates

Hen Harrier Day is now supported by RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust, the Hawk and Owl Trust, the Peak District National Park, the League Against Cruel Sports, Birdwatch magazine, Rare Bird Alert, the Welsh Ornithological Society and Quaker Concern for Animals.  Thank you to all who are supporting this day. Three events are…

Game Fair 3 – in photos

This must be about my 20th Game Fair, so I realised that when it said that it opened at 9am this was just nonsense – soon after 8am I had parked, got a lift on a trailer from the car park to the entrance, paid to enter and then started walking down the hill where…