What you’ve said
“Classing a crime like this as miscellaneous is way off the mark.”
“How can this barbaric kind of thing be miscellaneous?”
These are a tiny selection of the personal messages that our supporters have sent to the Minister of State in the Home Office over the past 16 months with our Make Wildlife Count campaign.
We launched it in 2022, calling on the Home Office to make wildlife crimes notifiable and not left in the ‘miscellaneous’ pile, as they currently are. It sounds incredibly procedural, but it is vital for wildlife. I’ll explain a bit more:
If you reported a burglary at your home, to the police, they would have to record it on their system under a specific code. This code has been made ‘notifiable’ in status by the Home Office as they want to know how many burglaries happen around the country year on year. Therefore, you can very quickly find out how many reported burglaries there were, how they were resolved and if there are any hotspots to combat.
Knowing the level of criminality helps resource the response, it helps in funding prevention and it helps to raise awareness amongst communities to reduce the offending.
Wildlife crimes, such as hare coursing and badger baiting, are not notifiable. The Home Office doesn’t want to hear about it.
The suffering of these animals is immeasurable, but the crimes must not be.
How can you tackle a problem if you have no idea about how big it is? The police have an impossible task with wildlife crime currently, and we need to do more.
In October 2022, with our partners, we submitted an evidence dossier to the Home Office. Wildly, this is ‘still under consideration’. Following on from the recent devastating news that the government had dropped the Kept Animals Bill, I remain cynical about whether our strong recommendations to make wildlife crimes notifiable are genuinely ‘under consideration’.
This is where I need you, again.
Thousands of you supported our Make Wildlife Count campaign, which I can’t show my appreciation enough for. BUT, we need to pile on the pressure. They’re not listening to us, to you or the evidence.
We need wildlife crimes to be notifiable, our wildlife needs it too.
I’m now asking for you to get local. Your locally elected MP is your voice in the UK Parliament, they represent YOU. Now we need them to know what YOU want them to stand up for.
Make your voice heard.
Join us and email your MP today to ask them to show up and stand up for British wildlife. Make wildlife count and stop this ridiculous guessing game of blindly policing the barbaric crimes against our wildlife. (Please note this campaign has now closed.)
Without us our British wildlife is voiceless, left without being valued, left without proper protection and left with the reality of persecution.
Kate
