Off the Leash

A shortcast about snares - part of our series supporting Animal Aid’s petition to ban free-running snares. 

This recording is from Rob Pownall, the founder of the increasingly influential campaign group Keep the Ban which works to end the hunting of wildlife in the name of sport.

•  Animal Aid petition  Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022)  
• Keep the Ban Website and Twitter feed

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!

A shortcast by Hannah from the campaign group EndPrim8abuse. Hannah has been working for two years and spent countless hours trying to get YouTube to take responsibility and take down deeply disturbing videos showing the abuse of very young monkeys. 

With her colleague Sue, Hannah has put in literally thousands of complaints and emails to YouTube, and has contacted organisations and charities all over the world - but the videos are still online, and both YouTube and the content creators are earning ad revenue from animal abuse. 

This is a very informative, powerful and emotional shortcast. It is uncomfortable listening but it is not graphic. Hannah has intentionally left out the more harrowing details she's uncovered in the hope that more people will feel able to listen to it and help her and her supporters #EndtheTrend. 

• EndPrim8Abuse on Twitter and on Facebook
• Please share using #EndTheTrend

In this episode of The Off the Leash Podcast, Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer discuss a mix of politics, animal rights, and institutional bias. What might happen to the government's legislative animal welfare agenda if Boris Johnson is replaced as Prime Minister,  for example, and are government petitions worth signing (the answer is 'Yes'). We look at why hare coursing is discussed in Parliament but not hare hunting (both are illegal after all(, and read out a very accurate statement by the campaign group Action Against Hare Hunting which nails the reason brilliantly. We discuss a decision by Cornwall Council to continue allowing so-called 'Trail hunting' on its land and look at the Code of Conduct that should guide elected councillors. In the light of so much information emerging on the clear bias of some police officers towards hunts, is it right that the Chair of the College of Policing should also be the Chair of the pro-hunting lobby group the Countryside Alliance? We ask why Glue Traps are still available when they're obviously cruel. And we name our Heroes and Villains (once again the loathsome  Safari Club International come on for a slating).

• Animal Aid petition  Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 09 May 22)  
• Government Petition Suspend trade agreement with Faroe Islands until all whale & dolphin hunts end (Deadline 21 march 22)
• Peta Petition Replace the real bearskins used for the Queen’s Guard’s caps with faux fur (Deadline 06 July 22)
• Action Against Hare Hunting Twitter feed and Facebook page
• Hunt Saboteurs Association Hare Hunting Packs
• Interview #15 South London Hunt Sabs | Sabbing 2.0
• Interview #14 Wiltshire Hunt Sabs
• Falmouth Packet Debate on trail hunting in Cornwall at council: what happened (19 Jan 22)
• Local Government Association Model Councillor Code of Conduct 2020
• Countryside Alliance blog Nick Herbert MP is new Alliance Chairman (18 Oct 19)
• Government website Nick Herbert appointed Chair of College of Policing (14 Jan 21)
• OneKind Scottish Government bans glue traps (21 Jan 22)

A shortcast by Paul Tillsley about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use free-running snares illegal.

"...the badger was gone, as was the snare...all that was left was a pool of blood and some lumps of flesh"
Paul is a hugely experienced investigator and Head of Conservation Education for the League Against Cruel Sports. He lives on Exmoor surrounded by commercial pheasant shoots and sees wildlife persecution - including snaring - on an almost daily basis...

• Animal Aid petition  Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022) 
• League Against Cruel Sports Website and Twitter feed

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!

A shortcast by Kwesia, aka City Girl in Nature, a young woman from Deptford in South London who after a trip to the Amazon was inspired to work with young people in her community, some of whom have never had the opportunity to experience anything other than poverty and hardship.

• Website  citygirlinnature.com
• Linktree  linktr.ee/citygirlinnature
• Twitter twitter.com/citygirlnature
• YouTube City Girl in Nature
• Instagram  instagram.com/citygirlinnature/

 A shortcast by activist Sue Bliss about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use free-running snares illegal

• Animal Aid petition   Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022) 
• Sue Bliss Twitter feed

Off the Leash's Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer discuss the brutal crackdown on street dogs in Turkey - and just to be clear at NO stage do we go into graphic or upsetting detail.

Street dogs and cats have always been a part of life in Turkey's cities. Mark Twain wrote in 1867 that “The dogs sleep in the streets, all over the city. …They would not move, though the Sultan himself passed by,” and filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, whose documentary “Stray” had its streaming release in early 2021, said she was struck by “seeing dogs roaming around freely, living life on their own terms, in this very developed city,” and by the relationship she observed between them and Istanbul’s human residents.

Istanbul is home to some 400,000 to 600,000 stray dogs and cats, according to Ahmet Atalık who oversees veterinary services for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. There has long been a live and let live attitude to street dogs in Turkey, so what has changed so that they are now being persecuted? 

• DuvaR.english  Animal rights defenders fear for dogs' lives after Erdoğan targets stray dogs (26 Dec 2021)
•  The Independent Turkey’s Erdogan shows bark and bite by targeting stray dogs in culture war (29 Dec 2021) 

A shortcast by author and campaigner Linda Newbery about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use of free-running snares illegal.

Linda has published numerous novels and short stories, but her latest book is non-fiction, drawing on years of animal welfare campaigning. Titled 'This Book is Cruelty Free: Animals and Us' it's a guide to compassionate living, aimed at age roughly 12+ but with plenty of interest for adults too. 

• Animal Aid petition   Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022) 
• Linda Newbery Website    and Twitter feed
• Pavilion Books - This Book is Cruelty Free:  Animals and Us

An interview with award-winning campaigner Sarah Corbett, the founder of the Craftivist Collective, an inclusive group of people committed to using craft to help themselves and encourage others to be the positive change they wish to see in the world. Sarah's deeply-thoughtful campaign work is a beguiling mix of activism and philosophy or 'way of life' - fulfilling a need for a different form of activism, particularly relevant for any of us that feel permanently on the brink of frustrated burnout. As she asks. "If we want our world to be more beautiful, kind and fair, can we make our activism be more beautiful, kind and fair? If there’s time for the loud, there’s also time for the quiet. If there’s time for the fast, there’s also a need for the slow. In everyone’s heart is a desire to change things for the better – it is essential that there is an activists toolkit that is as diverse as humanity."

Over the summer Sarah launched a new project centred on climate change, the Canary Craftivists, which we'll be looking at in more depth later on in the conversation, but I began by quoting back to her a paragraph on the back of the beautiful book - or manual (and more of that latter too) - that she has produced from that campaign which asks “are you worried about global warming and anxious about taking part in large or loud forms of activism? If you’re more of an eco-worrier than eco-warrior then this manual is for you."

• Craftivist Collective  Website
• Craftivist Collective on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Twitter
• To sponsor Sarah please go to craftivist-collective.com/adopt-a-craftivist

A shortcast by author and campaigner Bob Berzins about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use of free-running snares illegal.

Bob lives on the edge of the Peak District National park, an area blighted by wildlife crime and snares. He’s worked with activists and wildlife charities, and spoken to police officers and crime commissioners in an effort to improve the plight of wildlife in the Park. He has also trained and worked as a counsellor which has helped him bring psychological depth to his excellent first novel ‘Snared’, a few pages of which Bob reads at the end of this recording.

• Animal Aid petition   Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022) 
• Bob Berzins Website    and Twitter feed
• Book Review  Bob Berzins | Snared  (War on Wildlife Project, June 2020)
• IDAS Shop  Snared Audiobook