Off the Leash

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

The Norwegian Government are planning to do 'sound experiments' on young Minke Whales captured as they move north to summer feeding grounds. This torture of whales is being done solely for the military and the oil and gas industries.

Vanessa Williams-Grey, Policy manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) - wrote a blog on the issue and has also given us a powerful shortcast to post here.

As well as slating the proposals - "there's so much wrong with these experiments" - Vanessa suggests actions we can take,  and we have posted links below to a petition and an email address for Norwegian Prime-Minister Erna Solberg.

Change.org    Tell Norway’s government to stop cruel whale experiments
Email  Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg  [email protected]

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

In this shortcast Tom Langton discusses the call for evidence made by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) which could lead to the removal of legislative protection for many of the UK's amphibians and reptiles, and could "allow snake-bashing to become lawful again". 

Tom Langton started out in conservation in the mid-1970s, joining BTCV mid week and weekend tasks removing pine trees from heathland areas in  Dorset Hampshire and Surrey.  This led him to meet the British Herpetological Society Conservation committee and work on protecting rare species such as sand lizard, natterjack toad and smooth snakes as a teenager and then its first honorary conservation officer. London based, he found himself in the room at pivotal moments in the development of  nature conservation – not just the rare species amphibian and reptile conservation strategy, but the formation of Wildlife Link,  the passing of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1981 and the birth of the Bern Convention in Strasbourg.

Having completed an ecology degree, he set up the Toads on Roads campaign while completing a survey of Greater London for Great crested newts amongst other duties for the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society. During the 1980s he worked to get the more widespread UK amphibians and reptiles protection under Schedules 5&8 of the 1981 Act, making snake bashing illegal and raising awareness of the steady erosion of ponds from neglect, pollution and infilling, Gaining at least some protection for reptiles from losses of open undisturbed heathland and scrub pushing and pushing with the help of English Nature until adder was finally protected.

He went on to found Froglife and the UK Herpetofauna Groups network including the Frog Mortality Project with ZSL, looking at the threat from introduced diseases in and around London and the south of England.

The recent news that nine species could be dumped off the protected list due to a change in criteria for listing was not going to escape his attention.

After the surprise by-election result at Chesham and Amersham, in our eighth episode Dominic discusses whether there is still a need for HS2 and the impact of loosening housing development controls. We highlight the new Australian trade deal and the animals at the heart of it. Our first guest audio comes from Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming, who puts the case for 'cultured meat'. Charlie talks about intensive agriculture and biodiversity loss, and whether people are ready for lab meat. In Hero and Villain, we first hear from Vanessa Williams-Grey, Policy Manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), on the shameful Norwegian Minke whale sound experiments, before Charlie nominates Jane Stevenson MP as Hero of the Week for her work on glue traps and Dominic thanks First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford for shutting the door on a Welsh badger cull.  For our villains, Charlie slates the JNCC for potentially removing protection from Common Toads and Adders, and Dominic spanks Mark Zuckerberg for hunting wild boar while not doing enough to stop illegal wildlife trade on Facebook. Finally we outline our ideas for 'Guests Off the Leash' and thank Twitter use 'Me' for their supportive words on social media. 

The Guardian   Lib Dems win Chesham and Amersham byelection in stunning upset

HS2 Rebellion

The Guardian   UK-Australia trade deal: what does it mean?

Compassion in World Farming   Petition: Demand a Future Free from Factory Farming

Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC)   Shameful whale experiments in Norway – what we know and why they must stop (blog by Vanessa Williams-Grey)

Change.org    Tell Norway’s government to stop cruel whale experiments

Email  Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg  [email protected]

Government backs Bill banning the use of glue traps for pest control

The War on Wildlife Project  Wales | No to Badger Culling

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Daily Mail   Mark Zuckerberg spotted on Hawaii danger hike hunting wild boar 

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

 Ecologist Tom Langton has been fighting the badger cull for years. He runs the Badger Crowd website and is crowdfunding after being given permission to take a challenge against the cull to the High Court - please support him at Help stop badger culling adding to England's Biodiversity catastrophe

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

Stuart Spray is an environmental journalist who has worked as an ecologist for Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Solway Heritage, The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) – and he is – well, distinctly irritated by the goings-on down in Carbis Bay last week…

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

Hugh Warwick (aka Hedgehog Hugh)  has been doing fantastic work to restore hedgehog populations here in the UK – and has shown heroic levels of persistence in keeping alive a Change.org petition to make hedgehog highways compulsory in new builds….Over 980,000 people have signed Hugh’s petition which is a staggering figure and it will be even more staggering when one million have signed it. 

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

Tim Birch, Director of Nature's Recovery at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, is passionate about defending wildlife & restoring the natural world. He is a noted proponent of a vaccination programme to protect badgers from Bovine TB – in early 2018 he tweeted this about badgers and Michael Gove, who was Environment Secretary at the time: “It is incomprehensible Gove considering slaughtering badgers in low risk bovine TB areas in England. Why not support vaccination there? Mr Gove come and visit Derbyshire Wildlife Trust vaccination programme. We cost £80 per vaccinated badger.  Shooting a badger costs £6000!” 

Three years on and nothing has changed...

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

In this shortcast podcaster and campaigner Lisa Marley (who joined the team here at 'Off the Leash' shortly after making this shortcast)  talks about her passion for the environment and her wonderful new podcast series 'Crimes Against Nature'.

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

Alan Davies, former Site Manager of the RSPB reserve at Conwy and an ultra keen birder who runs a travel company with partner Ruth called BirdwatchingTrips with The Biggest Twitch told us what he thought about the - ahem - 'person' who chainsawed down an Osprey nesting platform at Llyn Brenig in North Wales in May 2021.

‘Shortcasts’ are short standalone audio comments and statements from conservationists, campaigners, charities, authors and members of our audience. If it needs to be said – say it here!

Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, is reacting here to the surprising news that South Africa was shutting down its canned lion industry and how almost all trophy hunting has 'a canned element to it'.