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!

A shortcast by Off the Leash's Charlie Moores about a government petition making its way around social media at the moment that aims to 'Ban the Shooting of Critically Endangered Woodcocks'. Its first paragraph says, to quote. “Numbers of this iconic bird have declined dramatically over the past 20 years, placing them on the RED (critically endangered) wildlife conservation status list.” There is a trend showing long-term decline of the British breeding population of Woodcocks, yet shooters still want to shoot them. Why? For fun...

• Please sign the petition, which you can find at Ban the Shooting of Critically Endangered Woodcock

EDIT: In January 2022 the Government (in the form of Defra) responded with a typically tone-deaf dismissal of the petition saying, " Recent population trends for woodcock are likely to be influenced by the extent and quality of habitat rather than shooting. There are no plans for a ban. " So, acknowledge that Woodcock are in decline, don't take a cautious approach and stop further declines caused by killing the remaining birds, shift the blame to habitat loss, and say to the powerful shooting lobby 'Carry on, lads'. No wonder our wildlife is in so much trouble...

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 a supporter of Derbyshire Against The Cull, who was inspired to write this piece after attending a demonstration outside Haddon Hall on December the 4th when the Hall was putting on a family-friendly Christmas event. It includes the voices of two other supporters at the demonstration recorded on a mobile phone. 

• Derbyshire Against The Cull Facebook page
• Derbyshire Against The Cull Twitter feed and the tweet about the rewording of Haddon Hall's website
• Derbyshire Against the Cull - Ko-fi donation page:  ko-fi.com/derbyshireagainstthebadgercull
• Off the Leash Podcasts Interview #09 Derbyshire Against The Cull | Voices from the Cull Zone

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 fascinating shortcast with environmental theorist Dr Matthew Adams in which he describes his research into Pavlov's Dogs, discovering that thousands of dogs (incuding pets) were stolen off the street and that the results of Pavlov's gruesome experiments are not as clear-cut as usually portrayed. Matthew also explains how he wants experimental animals to be seen as individuals and not the 'interchangeable automatons' so often depicted in scientific literature.

• Matthew Adams  Anthropocene Psychology (Being Human in a More-than-Human World)

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 created from phone recordings captured by campaigner and activist Emily Lawrence at the protest in London today in support of whales and dolphins. The recordings include protest chants outside both the Danish and Japanese Embassies and a short statement from Off the Leash's Dominic Dyer.

• Petition Suspend trade agreement with Faroe Islands 
• Shortcast #43 Sea Shepherd UK | #StoptheGrind Demo

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 with campaigner and activist Emily Lawrence who explains why she has organised a march for whales and dolphins  for Friday December the 3rd which will begin outside the Danish Embassy in London.

• Event details Taiji and Faroe Islands dolphin and whale march
• Meet at Danish Embassy 55 Sloane Street, SW1X 9SR London 

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!

"Humans have made dogs one of the most unhealthy species on earth and we have a moral duty to fix it."  A shortcast with trauma counsellor Annie Wilson about the 'What's in my Genes?' campaign which works to raise awareness of hereditary diseases in dogs and to establish a kitemark for dog breeders, which the campaign says must be licenced and regulated.

• Paws Against  What's in my Genes?
• Paws Against Facebook page

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 with Off the Leash's Dominic Dyer and Charlie Moores about the announcement today from the National Trust that they will no longer issue licences for so-called trail hunting on their land.

To quote from the NT's statement, Harry Bowell, Director of Land and Nature said: “The board of trustees has carefully considered this issue. Its decision to issue no further licences for trail hunting is based on a wide range of considerations. These include - but are not limited to - a loss of trust and confidence in the MFHA, which governs trail hunting, the vote by National Trust members at our recent AGM, the considerable resources needed to facilitate trail hunting and the reputational risk of this activity continuing on our land.”  

• Statement from National Trust National Trust says it will no longer issue trail hunt licences 

TW:  very occasional strong language and upsetting themes

'Voices from Camp Beagle' is a podcast created from a series of recordings Off the Leash Podcasts made on November 20th 2021 at Camp Beagle, the protest camp set up outside puppy-breeding farm MBR Acres - and the day of a demonstration attended by several hundred people (and just a few days after singer and actor Will Young handcuffed himself to the gates of MBR Acres to support the Camp).

In this podcast you’ll hear from Camp residents and day visitors, you’ll hear incredibly poignant music being played alongside the MBR Acres facility, and you’ll hear dogs – many dogs – some of them companion animals outside MBR Acres, and some of them beagle puppies crying from inside the facility itself. It’s not always an easy listen - it’s occasionally quite graphic, though there is nothing gratuitous - and it is emotional: the word ‘heartbreaking’ is used many times.

Of course you have the option to simply switch off, to not listen, the choice is yours – but as heartbreaking as this all is, this is also a heartwarming story, a story of resilience and determination, of people just like you and me coming together to do extraordinary things for animals…

• Camp Beagle Website
• Camp Beagle Facebook page and Twitter Feed 
• tcm.digital (Camp Beagle Videographer) Facebook page 
• FLOE (For Life On Earth) Website and Twitter feed
• Stay Close Clothing Website
• Jessica Diamond (musician) Website
• Cambridgeshire Live  Will Young joins Camp Beagle protest at Huntingdon beagle facility - recap
• Off the Leash Podcasts Live #03 #FreetheMBRBeagles Protest (outside the Home Office)

Welcome to the first half of a two-part recording made on November the 12th at the Manchester Art Gallery - and the inaugural Emily Williamson Festival. 

The Festival was created by author and campaigner Tessa Boase and activist and event organiser Tina Lindsay to honour the memory of Emily Williamson, who in 1889, determined to stop the ‘murderous millinery’ of the plumage trade, founded an all-female group that just fifteen years later had become the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the RSPB.

In the first part of this recording we heard from Professor Melissa Bateson, Emily Williamson’s great, great niece, and a fascinating panel discussion chaired by zoologist and wildlife TV presenter Megan McCubbin, with a panel consisting of biologist, nature writer and campaigner Amy-Jane Beer; Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB, Juliet Vickery, CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology and President of the British Ornithologists Union, and the Chief Executive of BirdLife International Patricia Zurita.

In this second part of the recording, Megan begins by turning to the panel again to discuss what she calls ‘the elephant in the room’ – the fact that everyone on the stage is a woman...and later invites questions from the audience. Because the audience weren’t mic’d the three questions that were asked are inaudible but the answers given by the panel are far too important just to edit out – so at Tessa’s suggestion Off the Leash's Charlie Moores will be repeating those questions and editing them in...we end with an evocative reading by Amy-Jane Beer of an essay she wrote after an evening spent on the Knepp Wildland Estate listening to one of the most remarkable singers on the planet…

Off the Leash Podcasts has been proud to support the Emily Williamson Festival, celebrating female voices in conservation and Emily's legacy, which goes to show that one voice - anyone's voice - can make a difference. The Festival website remains live of course, if you’d like to learn more please go to emilywilliamsonstatue.com/festival

Welcome to the first half of a two-part recording made on November the 12th at the Manchester Art Gallery - and the inaugural Emily Williamson Festival. 

The Festival was created by author and campaigner Tessa Boase and activist and event organiser Tina Lindsay to honour the memory of Emily Williamson, who in 1889, determined to stop the ‘murderous millinery’ of the plumage trade, founded an all-female group that just fifteen years later had become the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the RSPB.

Tessa and Tina organised a fascinating discussion for the first evening of the festival, chaired by Zoologist and Wildlife TV Presenter Megan McCubbin, with a panel consisting of biologist, nature writer and campaigner Amy-Jane Beer; Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB, Juliet Vickery, CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology and President of the British Ornithologists Union, and the Chief Executive of BirdLife International Patricia Zurita.

In this first part of the recording, we hear from Tessa Boase herself who explains how she uncovered Emily Williamson’s forgotten history, before introducing behavioural scientist Professor Melissa Bateson – who has spent many years researching Starlings and is Emily Williamson’s great, great niece. Megan then takes over to talk about the representation of women in conservation, introducing the panel who in turn discuss what nature means to them and explaining the backstory to an object that each has brought along to the Festival…

Off the Leash Podcasts has been proud to support the Emily Williamson Festival, celebrating female voices in conservation and Emily's legacy, which goes to show that one voice - anyone's voice - can make a difference. The Festival website remains live of course, if you’d like to learn more please go to emilywilliamsonstatue.com/festival