Tag: foxes

Contacting your local MP and the Hunting Act amendment

Posted on by Georgia Locock

As I stated in my latest blog and you may have heard in the media, the free vote for MPs on the repeal of the Hunting Act is next Wednesday. This has all come very suddenly and is no doubt going to cause a lot of chaos in the next few days. Even though 80% of the public want the ban to stay in place there is that few that want to repeal it. However it’s not the public that will be voting, it’s the MPs therefore as constituents we need to make our voice heard to our MPs and make sure they vote no!

So, contacting your local MP is very important. They may be a tough nut pro-hunter and you may think it won’t work but it’s worth it and you’ve got nothing to loose. Along with this it takes no time at all to simply send an email, letter or maybe even a tweet just to see if they will be voting for or against the repeal. A few weeks back I put together a template letter which is free to use and edit if you wish, find it by clicking here.

Meeting with my local MP

A few weeks back, running up to the general election, I got in touch with all my local candidates about the issues around young people not engaging with the natural world with the blog I did for A Focus on Nature. The Conservative candidate, Michael Fabricant, got back to me and said if he was to be re-elected he would be willing to meet me. He was re-elected and I met with him this morning for an informal meeting in my local city centre. Coincidently the vote to repeal the Hunting Act is in just a few days so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to ask him about his views. I already knew that he wouldn’t vote to repeal it as he’d stated it on Twitter but I asked him a few questions about his points of view on this matter. What he said was quite positive and great to hear.

The planned topic was actually about the education of nature in primary schools which he was in favour of and I plan to take this further. This issue is very important to me as less children are becoming connected with nature, in fact it’s believed just 1 in 5 are. You can read more about what I’ve said in the past here – https://georgiaswildlifewatch.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/my-visionfornature/

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URGENT: Act now!

Posted on by Georgia Locock

Whilst looking through my Twitter feed just now I saw a few news articles and tweets from organisations such as The League Against Cruel Sports and Save Me saying the vote for MPs to repeal the Hunting Act could be as early as next week.

It looks to me it’s going to be a seven day campaign between those who want to repeal and those who don’t as here’s a few tweets I read from the pro-hunting lobby too.

Obviously this is no surprise so please do what you can. Do you want huntsmen to have the right to chase an innocent animal to exhaustion then with a pack of hounds tear apart whilst it’s still alive in the most barbaric way possible?

There’s the argument that it’s ‘wildlife management’ and ‘pest control’ but what about that story that came out a few weeks back about 16 cubs that were kidnapped and kept in a barn for the use of hunting. You can learn more about this here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7PjfphDsc0&feature=youtu.be

Please write to your local MP even if you have done in the past. It could make all the difference and can only take a couple of minutes. I wrote this template letter a few weeks back if that’s any help – https://georgiaswildlifewatch.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/urging-your-mp-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-wildlife/

#keeptheban 

Saturday night foxes.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

For the last few weeks I’ve been filming some foxes with my trail camera not far from where I live. I’ve visited the area for as long as I can remember and it is undoubtedly one of the places that started of my passion for the natural world.

When we first set the camera up we didn’t get anything but we didn’t give up there and the next time we set the camera up we filmed a fox then the time after that we filmed two different foxes. They seemed to be in perfect condition and I’m looking forward to see what footage we can get in the Spring. Here’s the footage from last weekend.

 

A day of talking all things mammal!

Posted on by Georgia Locock

Earlier this year I was asked to give a day of talks at a school for autism. Throughout the Summer and early Autumn I went along to the school grounds to film the wildlife they have in their forest with my trail cameras. The forest at the school is used regularly by the students where they do a variety of different outdoor activities. In the forest we managed to film lots of foxes, rabbits and squirrels along with the odd pheasant and jay.

When I gave the talk I included all the footage I had filmed at the school along with my own footage and photos. The talks were back to back all day, with breaks in between, and each lasted for around 25 minutes. Throughout I spoke about different mammals which would be present in the UK, and on the school grounds. I spoke about many different mammals from hedgehogs and squirrels to otters and badgers. The ages ranged from around 9 to 18 and it was great to share all my footage and show them what was going on outside their class rooms when no ones there. Plus talking about wildlife for the day was defiantly better then a day at school!

They were all a great audience and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

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