Wild Justice



The RSPB on grouse shooting

We are often asked why the RSPB does not support our petition (and previous ones) to ban driven grouse shooting. […]





May your days be merry…

…and wild! Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the small team of us here at Wild Justice!



Leaden progress

It looks as though we are moving, oh so slowly, towards the removal of lead ammunition from most of UK […]








An open letter to the Charity Commission

Dear Charity Commission, we are writing to you from Wild Justice, a nearly-six-year old not-for-profit company whose objects are: We […]








Dartmoor – commonly badly managed

This blog provides background to our legal challenge of the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council – see previous blogs here (22 July) […]



























Restore Nature Now – your photos

On Saturday 22nd June, tens of thousands of you took to the streets for nature and for the climate. Here […]
































Restore Nature Now – Placards

If you’re joining us at the Restore Nature Now march on 22nd June, here are two PDF documents of a […]









Badgers – we write to Defra

Statement by Badger Trust and Wild Justice We jointly instructed Leigh Day solicitors to send an urgent request to Defra […]








Wild Justice’s 2023

Here’s a very quick run through some highlights of 2023. It’s been a good year for our legal challenges. The […]


We wish you a…

Merry Christmas, from the small team of us here at Wild Justice! May your break bring you rest and peace, […]









Blow that whistle!

Let us tell you a story – some of it is known, some of it is surmise based on anonymous […]



Wild Justice on Sea – thank you!

Last weekend Wild Justice took to the seas – venturing out into Poole Harbour, Dorset, with two boat loads of […]



Ban or license? – a Wild Justice report

We asked subscribers to the Wild Justice newsletter whether they favoured licensing of driven grouse shooting or would they support […]










Are lead levels falling in game meat?

Wild Justice has led the way in testing game meat (Pheasant, partridge (unknown species) and Woodpigeon) that has been on […]




Survey responses 2023 (2)

Two years ago we sent out a survey through our newsletter and summarised the responses in five blogs over the […]


Survey responses 2023 (1)

Two years ago we sent out a survey through our newsletter and summarised the responses in five blogs over the […]



Dendles Wood – a sorry tale

We have received a response from NE to our information requests about Dendles Wood (see here). It reveals a sorry […]





Thank you, Benji Fallow!

Last December we wrote about how nine-year-old artist and naturalist Benji Fallow had chosen to donate the proceeds from his […]



Woodcock petition timeline

2022 early March – we talk about Woodcock shooting mid March – we talk to our lawyers about Woodcock shooting […]



Thanking a mammal

Our newsletter is received by over 30,000 subscribers and shared around and read by very many more. We obviously know […]






What you’ve told us about SSSIs (1)

Wow! We’ve already had over 500 responses to our Monday newsletter, and blog – click here – about SSSIs. And […]





Wild Justice scoops two awards!

We are delighted to have won two awards, voted by the readers of Birdwatch, in the 2022 Birders’ Choice Awards. […]





We lost our sewage appeal

We’re disappointed to have to tell you that we lost our appeal for permission for judicial review of Ofwat’s regulation […]






















Ofwat desperation

At Tuesday’s in-person hearing in front of Mr Justice Bourne to decide whether Wild Justice will be given permission to […]



We’re in court today

We’re in court today. Our legal team will be making the case that Ofwat has failed to meet their responsibilities to […]
























Rivers and Sewage

You’ve probably seen water pollution mentioned a lot in the news recently. Cases of sewage discharge and run-off from farming […]











Debating Badgers in Parliament

Yesterday afternoon, parliament debated our petition from last year, signed by over 106,000 of you. MPs gathered to discuss the […]




Important new study on Badger culling

Today an important paper on Badger culling has been published in the journal Veterinary Record. The paper reports on new […]















It’s our birthday!

Three years ago Wild Justice had its public launch. We’re still very much new kids on the conservation block and […]


Delaying tactics

We’ve learned, since our public launch on 13 February 2019, that public bodies almost always try to delay any legal […]








Glyphosate: taking the p*ss study

Wild Justice is interested in the use of the powerful pesticide glyphosate in the environment – as are many others.  […]









Thank you for your feedback

We get hundreds of emails a week and all of them are read. We can’t possibly reply to them all […]













We lost our renewal application

Today Wild Justice lawyers were arguing for a renewal of our claim for judicial review of DEFRA’s feeble burning regulations. […]





Ecological illiteracy from BASC

An article in this week’s The ENDS Report highlights the ecological illiteracy of the British Association for Shooting & Conservation […]



Glyphosate use by local authorities

Since we asked you to contact your local authority about their use of glyphosate, Wild Justice supporters have contacted over […]




E-action – 38,008 emails sent

As the #COP26 meeting starts in Glasgow, Wild Justice supporters have sent messages to all elected UK parliamentarians, at Westminster, […]





Three years ago…

Three years ago today, Wild Justice was incorporated as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. We think of 13 February […]


Burning bogs – we have appealed

We told you last week that we had been refused permission for judicial review of the DEFRA regulations on burning […]


Beavers – just saying…

This letter was sent on behalf of Wild Justice in response to the DEFRA consultation on Beaver reintroduction. In para […]





A setback – permission refused

We heard yesterday, Friday, afternoon that we have been refused permission for judicial review of the much criticised and frankly […]














NRW consults on general licences in Wales

Yesterday, Natural Resources Wales launched a consultation on their general licences. The consultation is lengthy but that is because it […]


Glyphosate use by local authorities

Last summer we wrote to 43 local authorities in England and Wales about their use of glyphosate-based herbicides. Although herbicide […]









Some recent messages

Our beautiful birds of prey deserve all the help they can get Having just watched Hen Harrier Day, we were […]











Thank you!

We get some lovely letters and notes and cards and emails. This note was one of many which arrived this […]



Thank you Gill!

Gill Lewis is a children’s author who has written many books about issues in nature conservation. Her books Sky Dancer […]



A letter to the Shooting Times

Dear Shooting Times, We write to you to draw to your attention the inaccuracy of an article published in your […]




200,000 signatures to save wildlife!

Early this morning the joint NGO #stateofnature petition passed 200,000 signatures. Wild Justice supporters played a large part in helping […]






What you think about lead in game meat

In yesterday’s Wild Justice newsletter we asked our over 40,000 subscribers (you can subscribe for free here https://wildjustice.org.uk/contact/ ) six […]




Lead levels in game meat

Later this week we will publish the results of laboratory analyses of lead levels in game meat sold in Sainsbury’s […]





Survey responses (5)

Over the Easter period we’ve post five short summaries of the responses – just for interest really. This is the […]


Survey responses (4)

We asked you: These are difficult figures to compare with UK averages but it is fairly clear that Wild Justice […]


Survey responses (3)

Over the Easter period we’ll post five short summaries of the responses – this is the third. We asked you: […]


Survey responses (2)

We sent out a survey in our newletter #57 and 8640 of you responded – which is amazing! Thank you. […]


Survey responses (1)

You’ll see that our newsletter subscribers are primarily, but not exclusively, UK based and from right across the UK. Very […]


DEFRA omnishambles

Dear DEFRA, we asked you at a so-called stakeholder meeting in early November about the conditions applying to your (then) […]


Thank you! 106,000 times

Thanks to you, this matter will be debated in Westminster Hall later this spring. You’ll be able to watch the […]





Thank you for your responses (4)

Hundreds and hundreds of you are responding to the DEFRA gamebird consultation and telling us that you have done so. […]


Thank you for your responses (3)

Many hundreds of you are responding to the DEFRA gamebird consultation and telling us that you have done so – […]


Thank you for your responses (2)

Hundreds of you are responding to the DEFRA gamebird consultation and telling us that you have done so – here […]


Thank you for your responses

We have been amazed by the number of people who have already told us that they have responded to the […]





DEFRA launches gamebird consultation

This consultation was released today – over two weeks later than we were told. The consultation period is three weeks, […]


In the post

Last week, a package arrived for Wild Justice in the post and it contained a cheque, a letter and some […]


Sainsbury’s game meat

There’s a slogan on Sainsbury’s website stating that its vision is to become the UK’s ‘most trusted retailer’. Some might […]


It’s our birthday – we are two

Two years ago today we launched Wild Justice. Since then our action has: led the reform of general licences across […]





GWCT, please check these statements

Wild Justice mounted a legal challenge to make DEFRA review harmful gamebird impacts which concluded last October when DEFRA agreed […]


Badger petition update

Our e-petition has passed 88,000 signatures with several thousand signatures being added yesterday. Yes, we had given this petition a […]



Making payments to our bank account

We bank with Triodos Bank because we like their environmental credentials – and they are efficient and friendly. Over the […]




We’re waiting patiently

We are waiting patiently for the judgment on our judicial review of the Welsh general licences. There is no point […]


This is a surprise…

This petition was submitted in July 2019, published by the Westminster Parliament in August 2019, reached 100,000 signatures in September […]


What will DEFRA do?

Thanks to the legal challenges made by Wild Justice, and our subsequent lobbying and that of others, the general licences […]



Happy Christmas!

Sign up to our newsletter – https://wildjustice.org.uk/contact/ Read our blog – https://wildjustice.org.uk/blog/ Donate to our work – https://wildjustice.org.uk/wildlife-donations/ Folow us […]



Thank you!

Thank you for all your messages of support – these come in a wide variety of forms and we get […]



Wildlife crime podcast

Wild Justice Director Ruth Tingay was interviewed on Planet Pod recently, discussing wildlife crime in the UK with podcast host […]





RSPB AGM and gamebirds

Tomorrow is the RSPB AGM and one of many interesting items will be the revelation of the RSPB’s new improved […]



Gamebirds subtract adders

This story in the Guardian today backs up our worries about the impacts of massive, unregulated releases of gamebirds on […]



Our Badger petition

It’s Tony Juniper’s birthday today and the House of Commons Petitions Committee have inadvertently given him a present from Wild […]




Fight back on Badgers

Last week we had a setback on our Badger case when we heard that the Hon Mr Justice Johnson had […]


123,678 e-actions!

An amazing total in just 24 days. If you’d like to continue to take action on this issue then sign […]


100,000+ e-actions – thank you!

Three weeks ago on Hen Harrier Day (online) we launched an e-action with Hen Harrier Action and the RSPB. Since […]


Setback on Badgers

Yesterday evening we heard that we have been refused permission for judicial review of Natural England’s licensing of Badger shooting. […]



Generous donation from WILD Sounds

Huge thanks to Duncan from WILD Sounds for a very generous donation of £600, collected from sales of Dara McAnulty’s […]


Wild Justice in conversation

A couple of weeks ago the three of us (Chris Packham, Mark Avery and Ruth Tingay) were interviewed by raptor […]












What others say (said) about us

There is a lot of comment about Wild Justice from others (we may even have been given a tangential mention […]


Thank you HSI-UK!!

This time last week we were approached by Humane Society International – UK offering us support for our challenge of […]


Press release from Leigh Day

Wildlife campaigners launch legal case to challenge the humaneness of the badger cull Wildlife campaign group Wild Justice has launched […]


Companies House

Wild Justice has filed its first-year accounts with Companies House – click here. We also paid our Corporation Tax last […]







Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you so very much. Our third major crowdfunder has been fully funded by over 900 generous donors. The English […]




Getting close

Our crowdfunder is approaching its target – thank you to everyone who has contributed at this very difficult time. We […]



Through the post

This card arrived in the post recently… And on the back was the message; Dear Wild Justice I thought I […]


Pheasants everywhere

This post describes a piece of scientific analysis carried out by Wild Justice and friends. Estimating the occurrence of Common […]




BASC blow a gasket

We’re pretty accustomed to abuse from the shooting community – often from individuals but increasingly from their representative body BASC. […]





Putting UK gamebird numbers in context

Here is another paragraph from the Wild Justice witness statement supporting our legal challenge; The scale of gamebird releases is […]




Small successful event in London

On Thursday evening, Wild Justice held a small event in London with friends, colleagues, donors, potential donors, journalists and others. […]


An announcement from DEFRA

As a result of Wild Justice’s legal challenge of last year and recent pokes for updates, DEFRA announced this on […]


Game Fair, fair game 2020

Last year Wild Justice directors Chris Packham and Mark Avery were invited to the annual Game Fair to face a […]


Superb raptor watch at Wicken Fen

We were very lucky. Considering the wind was blowing and it was raining when we arrived, it was unexpected that […]


DEFRA roll out of general licences

DEFRA has rolled out the existing scientifically flawed and, we believe, unlawful general licences for several more months. This is […]


It’s our birthday!

We launched Wild Justice a year ago today. We’re just getting into our stride and looking forward to Year 2. […]


Gamebird releases – update

Here are the most pertinent parts of a letter sent to DEFRA yesterday; and then; We trust that is clear…


A busy week

Monday – receive response from DEFRA on gamebird releases – we are waiting for our lawyers to advise us on […]



When will this e-petition get debated?

Wild Justice is looking forward to the day when our successful e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting will be debated […]


Parkgate – Sunday 9 February

On Sunday 9 February Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery from Wild Justice will join lots of other birders and raptor […]


In the post…

This seems an appropriate day for this card and its message and enclosure to arrive in the post. Wildlife knows […]


A recent email

We received this on Thursday afternoon but didn’t actually read it until Thursday evening (which is quicker than we get […]


Titchwell – Friday 7 February

A week today, Friday 7 February, Wild Justice co-founders Mark Avery and Ruth Tingay are visiting the RSPB Titchwell nature […]


Badgers and biscuits

On Tuesday Wild Justice had a long and detailed meeting with our legal team and a group of experts on […]


Letter to DEFRA on general licences

Yesterday Wild Justice’s lawyers sent this letter to DEFRA. Paragraphs 16, 17 and 18 sum it all up pretty well. […]



Wallasea raptor watch

Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery from Wild Justice went raptor watching yesterday afternoon at a rather chilly Wallasea Island RSPB […]


BASC go ballistic

Maybe it was optimistic to think that the shooting industry would be eager to see the issue of the conservation […]


Wild Justice Fighting Fund

We launched our fundraising drive for the Wild Justice Fighting Fund less than a week ago but it has already […]


Gamebird releases – renewed challenge

Today, indeed this very afternoon, our lawyers have sent the following Pre-Action Protocol letter to the Secretary of State for […]


Thank you!

We’ve been getting payments through PayPal, transfers to our bank account and cheques in the post. All are very, very […]


Raptor watching this winter

There are lots of nature reserves around the UK where you might see birds of prey this winter, including, if […]


We are raising money

Wild Justice launched 11 months ago and in the month running up to our birthday we are asking you for […]




It’s our birthday!

Today is our birthday! On 26 October last year we registered Wild Justice as a not for profit company.  It […]


Open letter to Natural England

Dear Tony Open letter to Natural England Chair, Board and staff It was good to meet you and Marian two […]


Well done Wales!

Natural Resources Wales (the equivalent of Natural England, the Environment Agency and Forestry England rolled into one) has issued its […]



Chris Packham wins another award

Huge congratulations to Wild Justice co-director Chris Packham, who received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Mirror Animal Hero Awards […]




General licences – Scotland

Everyone is looking at general licences following our successful legal challenge of the system, and in the knowledge that further […]



General licences in Wales

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) ordered a review of licencing arrangements following a legal challenge in England by campaign group Wild […]


Gamebirds legal challenge

We sent the following letter to the Defra legal team yesterday. As you can see, they are either in some […]



#HHDay2019 (4)

To somewhat use the words of one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs, at Hen Harrier Day at Carsington the […]



Bird Fair bits

Wild Justice was quite busy at the Bird Fair over the Friday-Sunday. Friday morning started at 09:30 with a talk […]


If you are at the Bird Fair today

If you are at the Bird Fair today then please take a postcard away with you. This postcard: It’s obviously, […]



#HHDay2019 (3)

What wonderful speakers there were at Hen Harrier Day! We don’t have images of them all, but here are some. […]


#HHDay2019 (2)

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust were wonderful partners at yesterday’s Hen Harrier Day event at Carsington Water. Not only was Tim […]


#HHDay2019 (1)

Yesterday’s Hen Harrier Day event was a great success. Here are just a few images of the day (all by […]



Getting very close to fully funded

Our crowdfunder is £4000 short of being fully funded – that’s amazing. Thank you to all who have contributed. This […]







Do not read if you are easily offended

Three weeks ago Chris Packham posted this image – it’s the three Wild Justice co-directors, Mark Avery, Chris Packham and […]




Crowdfunder update – over half way

On Thursday morning, at 10am, Wild Justice launched its current crowdfunder to raise the massive sum of £44,500 in order […]





Countryfile

Mark Avery, co-director of Wild Justice writes: It’s over a fortnight ago that I drove for three hours to Yorkshire […]


Hen Harrier Day update

Preparations for Hen Harrier Day are proceeding well – although setting up an event is always a bit nerve wracking. […]


Natural England’s conduct

This letter was sent to Natural England yesterday and copied to the EFRA Committee.


Thank you very much

From a sixth form college in the south of England – thank you very much indeed. We’re very grateful for […]





Hen Harrier Day 11 August

The speakers confirmed so far are the three Wild Justice directors (Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery) and Iolo […]


Response due from Natural England.

Natural England should be replying to Wild Justice’s Pre-Action Protocol letter over General Licence GL26 by 4pm tomorrow. We’ll be […]



Evidence base for GL26 is threadbare

This is the section in the Licence Determination document received from Natural England to justify the publication of General Licence […]



More on our latest legal challenge

Because the magazine/website Sporting Gun was unique among shooting magazines in actually asking us about what we were doing when […]



A message from Defra

Received from Defra yesterday afternoon: Dear colleague,   We intend to announce shortly how we will proceed on general licensing, […]


Hen Harrier Day 2019 #HHDay19

It looks like there will only be one Hen Harrier Day event in the UK in 2019 – but everyone […]


Nothing’s happening?

You may remember this handy visual aid published by BASC a while ago – it shows the scale of revocation […]




Short statement by Wild Justice

Wild Justice noted with interest the Efra Committee meeting which took evidence yesterday from Natural England.  Wild Justice will make […]


Questions for Natural England

Natural England’s Deputy Chair Lord Blencathra (who was Acting Chair at the time of the decision to revoke the General […]


Thank you RSPB

Wild Justice is pleased, but not remotely surprised, to see that the RSPB has followed our lead on the general […]


Thank you GWCT

A few days ago we thanked BASC for their response to the Defra consultation on general licences because it clarified […]


Thank you BASC

We are grateful to BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) for providing a very helpful visual aid to guide […]





Wild Justice blog

Hi there! We have a blog. We will be blogging. Watch this space.