00:00What began ten years ago as Hen Harrier Day is now called Action for Wildlife Day, widening
00:10the scope of the content. Like the RSPB now calling itself Nature's Voice, it's more about
00:16looks than action. Among the advertised stalls are the darlings of the orange paint industry,
00:22Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. Wild Justice founding member Chris Packham spent
00:28most of his time on stage talking about catastrophic climate change.
00:33You might be thinking, OK, what have Just Stop Oil got to do with this meeting which
00:38is principally about biodiversity and protecting our wildlife? Well, there won't be any wildlife
00:43if the planet's on fire. So please, if you have time, will you welcome these people and
00:55sign the petition that they have, because unless we retain that right for peaceful protest
01:01as part of our portfolio that we need for change, then I think we're in deep trouble.
01:07And when we launch our petition to ban driven grouse shooting, not licence it, but ban it,
01:13please think about signing that.
01:15As usual, the event is timed to go alongside the glorious 12th August, the opening of the
01:20grouse season in the UK. The Wild Justice team hailed the grouse shoot licensing system
01:25recently introduced in Scotland as the first step to an outright ban.
01:29The reason that that has all happened in Scotland isn't actually because the case is any stronger
01:35in Scotland. I think it's slightly weaker. It's very strong, but it's slightly weaker.
01:40It's because there's been a different party in government, one that was open to the idea
01:47of radical change. Do you remember the Conservatives? They've been around for quite a long time.
01:54They were not in favour of radical change on this subject. But now we've got Labour
01:59government. Well, I'm not sure it's going to be that different, but it is a new opportunity
02:06to get radical change. I would still like to see a ban on driven grouse shooting, not
02:13some tidying up of the rules, but a ban.
02:17So BASC have been opposed to the grouse war licensing ever since it was first proposed,
02:22but they're arguing that if you get caught killing a badger or using dogs to hunt foxes
02:29on your land, that's not fair. Can you imagine not only thinking that, but writing it in
02:38a newspaper column?
02:40Other speakers included Labour MP Olivia Blake, RSPB investigator Mark Thomas and members
02:44of Protect the Wild, formerly known as Keep the Ban. Under their old name, their focus
02:50was hunting with hounds. Now they've expanded their targets to everyone remotely connected
02:56to hunting, shooting and badger culls.
02:59It's disgusting what's going on. We want to shut down the shooting industry as fast as
03:04we possibly can. We're going to be doing so much more work over the coming years, including
03:09a huge undercover piece of work, which I probably shouldn't even be saying that we're doing.
03:14As reported on Fieldsports News, Protect the Wild is creating a list of companies. It says
03:20are involved in hunting or shooting. Called bloodbusiness.info, it describes the website
03:26as an ethical TripAdvisor and launched it at the end of July.
03:30I'm at risk of being sued here by both TripAdvisor and Ethical Consumer. But in a sense, our
03:37site is going to be a mix of TripAdvisor and Ethical Consumer. If you're going somewhere
03:44and you want to, you want to know the pub you're about to go into or the hotel you're
03:48about to go to or the village store or you've got a wedding and you want to check whether
03:52the photographer you're about to hire is connected with hunting and shooting. One day they will
03:58be on our site.
04:01It has been a tough few years for wild justice. It hasn't had a major success since its legal
04:07action against the government over general licences in 2019. Convictions for raptor persecution
04:13are at historic lows and thanks to the government's brood management scheme run as a partnership
04:18between Grouse Keepers and Natural England without the help of the RSPB, hen harrier
04:22numbers are on the up. Wild justice still has its faithful and it remains a threat to
04:28conservation and wildlife management.
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