Off the Leash

I tweeted recently - I'm @charliemoores if you'd like to check this out or follow me - that I'd been a little bit quiet on Substack, the blogging platform I use.I explained why in a post I wrote called 'Choosing sides on August 12th'...and it occurred to me that actually I'd been a bit quiet on Buzzsprout too - so here's that blog in audio form, slightly changed to fit the rhythms of my speech but well, the sentiments and intentions are exactly the same...

So, About five years ago a senior charity figure ‘advised’ me (way too aggressively for my liking) to ‘choose sides’. It seemed an odd and unnecessary thing to say. I had ‘chosen sides’ years earlier: I was on the side of wildlife, of plants, of biodiversity and nature and was utterly opposed to hunting, shooting, cruelty, exploitation, and wildlife crime. I’d proved that over and over again, right back from when I launched Charlie’s Bird Blog (hat was in a distant past before WordPress and home wi-fi) writing about what I saw birding around the world with an airline I worked for (and which I left in 2010). Proved it again when after what I thought was a friendly merger with a similar but US-based blog called 10,000 Birds I was booted off at short notice (literally almost overnight) because my anti-hunting views were ‘upsetting’ Americans and I refused to compromise. Again when I launched Birders Against Wildlife Crime (BAWC) a decade ago and came up with the 3Rs (Recognise, Record, Report). When I helped launch Hen Harrier Day - an idea initially conceived by BAWC member Alan Tilmouth and brilliantly taken up by Mark Avery and Chris Packham. When I started podcasting under the Talking Naturally banner. When I joined the board of League Against Cruel Sports to help fashion a policy on shooting (I did my term and moved on). When in 2015 I was asked by Lush founder Mark Constantine - a Talking Naturally listener - to make podcasts on wildlife and the environment for him and Lush.

Listening back to all of that I suppose I have moved around a bit looking for the ‘ideal situation’, but I’d clearly chosen sides a long, long time ago. And I like to think I’ve carried on in the same vein since with The War on Wildlife Project and Off the Leash. In just the last four months I’ve written or podcasted about, for example, gamekeepers and raptor persecution, explained why if foxhunting is banned it still takes place, discussed the royal immunity from crime in relation to two Hen Harriers killed at Sandringham, and why the shooting industry needs - unequivocally - to be stopped.

Anyway, I’m on the move again, taking my love of wildlife and my total opposition to hunting and shooting with me. Taking everything I’ve learned over the years, and all of the experiences I’ve built up and the contacts I’ve made. Taking my energy, focus, and drive. Where am I going? I’m going to be joining Rob Pownall and Matt Smithers at Keep The Ban.

• Follow me on Twitter  https://twitter.com/charliemoores
• For more information on Keep The Ban please go to the website https://www.keeptheban.uk/ and follow them (us!) on Twitter, on Facebook,  and on Instagram

In this podcast I talk with professional ecologists Tom Langton and Dominic Woodfield as we discuss a number of related issues that we’ve grouped together under the tite ‘Badger Culls, Biodiversity, Birds and the High Court’. It’s a complex conversation, and it takes experts like Tom and Dominic to explain everything so clearly: it includes duties to protect wildlife and the repeated failure of statutory bodies with respect to those duties which – depending on an upcoming Court Appeal on July 26th– could bring the ‘Next Steps’ 2020 badger cull policy crashing down; a report using volunteer data produced in 2018 by the British Trust for Ornithology, which supposedly looked at the impact on ground-nesting birds of carnivore or mesopredator release (a phenomenon in which populations of medium-sized predators eg foxes rapidly increase in ecosystems after the removal of larger, top carnivores eg badgers) – a report that was rejected by peer reviewers but still emerged – re-written – in 2021 and has been used to justify the badger cull since then; and something called ‘the no difference defence’ used by government nature bodies to justify their actions, which - in my opinion - is just mind-blowing…

For more information on the badger cull:

• BadgerCrowd Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/BadgerCrowd
• EuroBadger Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/euro_badger
• Tom Langton Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/tomlangton60
• Dominic Woodfield / Bioscan - http://bioscanuk.com/default.aspx

A conversation with a pioneer of non-animal testing Dr Carol Treasure. Carol is a founder of XCellR8, a laboratory exclusively devoted to animal-free safety and efficacy tests for the cosmetics, personal care and chemical industries. XCellR8’s clients include high street retail brands, large ingredient manufacturers and fast growth SMEs. 

Many of XCellR8’s tests are for moisturisers, soaps and shampoos – in fact, if you use a product from Lush, chances are its components were tested for how they will react with your skin by Carol and her team right here in the north of England…

There are two parts to our chat: the first takes place in the XCellR8 lab itself, and the second in a much quieter meeting room upstairs. We cover quite a range of issues ranging from the ethical to the scientific and the commercial – all with Carol’s good humour and infectious enthusiasm to the fore.

But first of all, let’s get over that tricky first introduction…

• Website https://x-cellr8.com
• Donate - https://x-cellr8.com/about-xcellr8/donate-to-xcellr8/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/XCellR8_Labs
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/XCellR8
• Carol on Twitter - https://twitter.com/DrCarolTreasure
• Anne-Marie Barton 24hr Crate of Loneliness - https://www.gofundme.com/f/24hr-crate-of-loneliness
• FRAME website – https://frame.org.uk
• Animal Aid - https://www.animalaid.org.uk/

Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer discuss attempts  by fox-hunting supporters. to intimidate activists. It's nothing new of course, but it should always be called out. In this particular instance, fox hunting supporters are making threats towards a hotel in Peterborough where the League Against Cruel Sports is hosting their next Enough is Enough event on June 17th and at which Dominic will be speaking...

• Register for free for ‘Enough is Enough’ at The Bull Hotel and Conference Centre, Peterborough, June 17th starting at 19:00.
• League Against Cruel Sports Website and Twitter feed

"I've tried to write the book that I felt I needed to read when I was younger, but I hope it appeals to all age groups." Trust me Sophie, it does...

A conversation with zoologist and science communicator Sophie Pavelle, about her first book, Forget Me Not, which is subtitled “Finding the forgotten species of climate change Britain”.

We spoke shortly before Forget Me Not’s launch date and discussed what the book is about, Sophie’s modern and fresh writing style (a style that I think makes her a unique and very important voice), and the lessons she’d learnt travelling the length and breadth of Britain looking for species ranging from seagrass and salmon to Mountain Hares and Marsh Fritillaries. 

I began though by asking Sophie about something she’d said in the epilogue to Forget Me Not that had really caught my attention: “Thank you to Dr Ruth Tingay for lifting me away from the dreaded imposter syndrome”. Sophie has packed a massive amount into a very short time. She’s a presenter, a writer, an ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts, sits on the RSPB Advisory Committee for England, has done an enormous hike for charity, and was now being published by Bloomsbury! In what sense, I asked her, could she possibly be called an ‘imposter’ – an overachiever perhaps, but not an imposter...?

• Bloomsbury Publishing Forget Me Not (Available from 09 June 2022)
• Sophie Pavelle Instagram and Twitter feeds
• Beaver Trust Website and Twitter feed

In the latest episode of The Off the leash Podcast Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer look at the latest on the badger cull - in other words, a climbdown by Defra; the findings of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Afghanistan & Nowzad - basically the most senior civil servants were found to be uncooperative and evasive; Dominic’s upcoming documentary which starts filming very soon; but we start with the submission Dominic and Born Free made to the EFRA Committee (the committee which examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its associated public bodies) on trade with the Faroes in relation to the Grind and the slaughter of pilot whales and other marine mammals - total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Faroe Islands was a staggering £881 million in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2021, an increase of 90.3% or £418 million from the four quarters to the end of Q4 2020!

• Gov Committee Role - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
• Sea Shepherd Operation Bloody Fjords 2022
• DTI Trade and Investment Factsheets Faroe Islands (May 2022)
• Gov Committee Missing in action: UK leadership and the withdrawal from Afghanistan (May 2022)
• Vet Record Analysis of the impact of badger culling on bovine tuberculosis in cattle in the high-risk area of England, 2009–2020
• Off the Leash Interview #23 Tom Langton and Dr Mark Jones | Badger Culling Research
• Off the Leash Interview #27 Keep the Ban | Skydiving to Expose Cubbing
• Shit Lawns Twitter feed
• Off the Leash Interview #25 Saffron Gloyne | Animal Welfare Party Candidate 

"As one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, Britain has a long way to go. Somerset’s super nature reserve is a great start; but it must also be an opportunity to change the way we regard and manage the countryside for the 21st century." (Stephen Moss, Observer Comment,  22 May 22)

A conversation with birder, award-winning author, bird tour leader, BAFTA award-winning television producer, a stalwart of the British Birdfair, President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, teacher of an MA in Travel and Nature Writing at Bath Spa University -  and journalist - Stephen Moss. 

Stephen and I have been talking about having a chat for a podcast for a while but when I heard last week that Natural Egland and the government had declared a new 'super National Nature Reserve' on the Somerset Levels - which is right on Stephen's doorstep - and moments later read an Observer Comment piece online written by him on this exact same subject ( that quote at the start of this podcast came from that piece) - well, the stars had surely aligned! Just days later we met up at the RSPB's Ham Wall reserve - part of The Somerset Wetlands National Nature Reserve, famed for its huge wintering starling flocks and for being the first reserve in climate-change Britain where three previously vagrant heron species - great white egret, cattle egret, and little bittern - have all bred. 

So what is a 'super national nature reserve', what function should sites like this have in terms of conservation, public access, and public good, do conservation organisations develop wetland sites like Ham Wall because they're powerless to halt climate change, and will I be able to edit a recording where we were constantly interrupting ourselves to look at Marsh Harriers and Bitterns? 

I'll give it a go...

• Stephen Moss Website and Twitter feed
• Observer Comment This ‘super reserve’ is not just for the birds (Stephen Moss
• Government press-release New ‘super’ National Nature Reserve created to protect rare wildlife (19 May 22)
• RSPB Reserves Ham Wall

For more audio - and blogs -  on wildlife, animal rights, and the environment, please go to offtheleash.substack.com

A conversation with pro-wildlife campaigner Rob Pownall, founder of Keep the Ban.

 We’re talking shortly before Rob jumps out of an aeroplane 10000’ above the Kent countryside to raise funds for a very special project to raise public awareness about one of fox hunting’s dirtiest secrets – cubbing. Cubbing, as you’ll hear us discuss, is a disgusting form of animal abuse, a wildlife crime where – to put it simply - fox hunters train their hounds by setting them on fox cubs. Rob is absolutely determined – and I’m absolutely determined with him – to talk about this issue so much and in so many spaces that – eventually – there will not be a single member of the public who doesn’t know what cubbing is and who doesn’t want it stopped…

• Crowdfunder Rob’s Skydive to Expose Cubbing
• Keep the Ban Website and Twitter feed
• Charlie Moores Shortcast #34 Cubbing

"I think what my life has taught me so far is that hardly anything is impossible if you work hard enough and you are passionate enough about. It is incredible the difference one person can make..." (Sam Hutchinson)

A conversation between Off the Leash’s Dominic Dyer and Sam Hutchinson, the founder of the animal welfare charity Power of One, which is described as a "platform which gives small charities and teams across the world a voice and the opportunity to connect with people like you, who want to help in the treatment, neutering and rehoming of dogs who have been neglected, abused or abandoned in some of the worst conditions imaginable". 

Dominic is an ambassador for Power of One, and spoke at the charity's official launch at Westminster's Church House on the 30th of April this year, when an incredible £40,000 was raised.

In their discussion, Sam and Dominic talk about that glittering lanch and Sam's hopes for her new charity, but Dominic began by asking Sam about her background and the drive that took her from reputedly the largest council estate in Europe to studying law at Manchester Unversity and on to an outstanding career in fund finance: Sam joined prestigious legal firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in 2018 and has now advised on some of the largest subscription and leverage deals in the market...

• For more information please go to the Power of One website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed

A short conversation between Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer about the Queen's Speech and animal welfare legislation. 

Yesterday, May 10th, the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary year, was given in the House of  Lords. It was - according to most commentators - a drab affair, a mix of new plans, long-made pledges and a handful of held-over bills. On animal welfare legislation, though, it was universally slammed with promises broken and pledges abandoned.

The Government did say that it is still committed to legislation to ban the import of hunting trophies, with The Secretary of State for Defra George Eustice quoted by a senior Conservative Mp Sir Roger Gale saying that it "will go ahead and be tougher than the manifesto commitment" but it has cancelled the flagship Animals Abroad Bill that would have outlawed trade in fur, stopped advertisers promoting exploitative animal events like elephant rides, and the import of foie gras....reportedly because MPs like Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was 'un-Conservative' to restrict choice - and by that he means his choice to eat foie gras rather than the choice of geese not to be force-fed grain until their livers explode...

• Government website Transcript of the Queen's Speech 2022