NEW BHPS PETITION AGAINST A24 TRAP, PLEASE SIGN!

[Nic]

Hi hogmeister

Well done for contacting John Turner. I wondered about it, but was waiting to find out what if any connection there was with BHPS. They must, surely, know about it with Hugh Warwick being apparently connected with it. But, I guess you can find that out from JT too. I think the thing that makes that petition work so well is the direct approach via email. I think people are much more likely to sign if they are asked directly, rather than just coming across something on social media or even seeing a poster, etc.

As I said earlier the gov. petition has picked up this afternoon – last check over 800 for the day. Don’t know why this is, possibly a hang over from the thunderclap, although that doesn’t make a huge amount of sense. It did occur to me that JT from the .38 degree petition might have already passed on the info. but that is increasing by hundreds to the gov. one’s tens, so maybe not. It does illustrate how much you can do if you know about all these social media type things.

Look forward to hearing what response you get.

[Penny]

Hi Nic, Hogmeister (love the profile pic)

All you need is an email address to sign the 38 Degrees petition; you don’t have to be on social media, but if you are, you can then share it. There must be something else going on with this petition, it has gained nearly another 3000 signatures since my post yesterday. I signed a 38 degrees petition a couple of years ago aimed at banning the use of toxic slug pellets and that is still stuck on just over 8000 signatures! It will be interesting to hear from John Turner, Hogmeister and if there is a way that the two petitions could somehow be linked. I did email the BBC over the last petition and got no response, but just maybe, with so many signatures on this one, they may just take notice this time…

[Nic]

Hi Penny and Hogmeister

Yes, the 38degree petition has been doing very well. I am not really surprised. I have always thought that if people knew about the gov one they would sign, because so many people love hedgehogs, it was just a matter of getting the information out and in a way that people notice. Everyone is bombarded with so much information these days. Also the 38 deg. petition was able to include much more information and so make it much more easily understandable. I had hoped something similar would happen with the gov one. It did increase by 958 yesterday, which is not enough (on 1.4. I worked out it needed an average of 1254 every day to reach the 100,000 in time and it hasn’t reached that amount since) but better than it has been. I know BHPS were going to contact their members sometime in the Spring and wonder if that’s why it picked up a bit yesterday.

I think, though, the fact that a petition about the same thing has had so many signatures, has got to carry weight about debating the matter in parliament, so fingers crossed. Had you been in contact with BHPS about it Penny? It would be really interesting to know if there was already a connection with them. If not I would be happy to, but didn’t want to waste their time – being asked twice unnecessarily.

[Penny]

Hi Nic,

No I haven’t been in contact with the BHPS, but I have just emailed the BBC about the huge amount of public interest in the petition. The email address should anyone else be interested is haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

Like you say Nic, with so many signatures on the 38 Degrees petition, surely someone in authority has got to sit up and take notice.

[Nic]

Hi Penny and Hogmeister

BHPS do know about the 38 Degrees Petition (started by a BHPS member who apparently didn’t know about the gov. petition!!), They have already been in contact with 38 Degrees and, sadly, they can’t link the petitions or promote the gov. one. (Getting a bit confusing with all these petitions!)

I tried contacting the BBC when the A24 trap petition was going last year, but nothing came of it. As you say, hopefully with the weight of numbers now, they might show more interest. Also hedgehogs seem to have become a bit topical of late. Did you see the pieces about hedgehogs on Countryfile? Also Fay from BHPS was on radio 5 live re. the new hedgehog road signs.

We all need to write to our MPs again so that they will, hopefully, be on the side of the hedgehogs in any debate, and also DEFRA again. From my experience last year, the first letter back from an MP is likely to be pretty standard blurb, similar to DEFRAs, so we really all need to write again to counter all DEFRAs original comments. I seem to remember writing 3 to my MP in the end last time, but will have to make contact again, I think, to bring it back into focus.

I think we still need to keep working really hard to try to reach the 100,000 for the gov. petition. The other petition just shows what can be done.

[Penny]

Hi Nic,

I missed the piece on Countryfile, I’ll add it to my ‘catch up’ list.
I didn’t know about the hedgehog signs, that’s fantastic news, it’s made my day. No excuse for our council not to use them now… Chris Grayling you’re a star!
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

[Hogmeister]

Hi Penny & Nic,

I haven’t heard anything back from John but, from your post above Nic, that probably answers the main question I posed that of linking the two campaigns. I felt that if the link to the Petition Parliament could be added to the information on the 38 degree website in some way that might increase the uptake of signatures but it doesn’t sound promising from what you have said.

The 38 degree petition is still going strong and now has over 140,000 signatures which is fantastic as this increases the profile of the campaign against the A24 traps. I can also see why they are doing so well as it is very easy to sign up too their petition by a simple press of a button (the Petition Parliament takes a bit more effort as we know although not that much more) but it doesn’t trigger a debate in Parliament which will have more gravitas.

I saw the hedgehog feature on Countryfile and contacted them to say it was a shame that the A24 trap issue couldn’t have been mentioned/debated as another peril facing our hogs but I have asked them if they would be prepared to put a follow up article on their website to advertise the petition but we will see what occurs. I will also try sending an email to the ‘have your say bbc’ address Penny and see if that gets any mileage as the more of us that contact them on one subject the more they will take notice hopefully.

We must all keep the faith and if we get the message out there via the on line community, wildlife groups, word of mouth, posters etc we can keep getting the numbers up and hit that magic 100,000 figure – I’m sure we can do this all.

[Nic]

Hi Hogmeister and Penny

I noticed a few people had left comments on 38 degree petition page and one mentioned that maybe the BHPS could help. What occurred to me was maybe someone could leave a message that if you are interested in hedgehogs that would be a good site to visit. That way, it wouldn’t be publicising the petition, but they might happen to see about it, if they visited. But, I’m not really sure how it works, who can leave messages, etc.

I agree, we must all keep trying to get the message out. Clearly, if a BHPS member didn’t know about it, we have a way to go. (But maybe just as well he didn’t know, as his petition has been such a success.) But I think if everyone tells everyone it should make a difference. I just hope everyone on Hedgehog Street realises that it isn’t going to be enough to just sign the petition – we all need to get others to sign too and get them to pass the message on. I still think it is possible to get there if we all try really hard.

[Penny]

Hi Nic, Hogmeister,

I’m not quite sure how the comment section works on the 38 Degrees website, but all I got was a quick flash of the text box and before I could reach for the keyboard it was replaced with the donation page! Which brings me to another point; a substantial amount of any money raised by 38 Degrees is spent on high profile campaigns – ads in newspapers, organising demonstrations etc – with so many people signing their A24 trap petition in such a short time, I am sure that they could be persuaded to take up the cause, just like they did with protecting our bees…I for one would be happy to stand outside the Houses of Parliament dressed in a hedgehog costume, if that’s what it takes!

If anyone was wondering what 38 Degrees stands for, here is a quote from their website:

‘38 degrees is the angle at which a pile of snowflakes becomes an avalanche. When enough gather in the right place, they become an unstoppable force.’

Like you say, if we all keep up the momentum I am sure that we can get there. I had almost given up hope of an official Department for Transport hedgehog road crossing sign, but thanks to public pressure and hedgehog champion MP Chris Grayling, we are now going to get one.

I also think that one of the reasons for their petitions huge success is the photo of that adorable hedgehog.

[Hogmeister]

Hi Penny and Nic,

I have had a simple thought (maybe because I’m a simple person!).

I receive occassional emails from Hedgehog Street about various hoggie matters the last one was wishing all us Hedgehog Champions a Merry Christmas yet I don’t recall seeing an email about the A24 traps and the petition?

As Hedgehog Street must have an email database to issue these emails to us all I have sent Emily (Wilson) an email and asked if she could please send an email to the near 48,000 hog champs about the A24 trap and ask anyone who hasn’t already done so to please sign the petition as its so important for our hogs.

As I said this is a simple thought but could increase the number of signatures dramatically (I’m not sure the Forum alone gets enough views to get the message out there to everyone) so, hopefully, an email will land in everyones in boxes from Hedgehog Street asking for us all to support the petition.

I’m sure others may have already done this but, if so, why have Hedgehog Street not sent us all an email about this as I don’t seem to have ever received one personally.

If anyone else wants to send an email the address I used was HedgehogStreet@email-ptes.org

[Nic]

Hi Hogmeister

Hedgehog Street did send out emails. Have you looked in your ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ folder as sometimes things like that end up there. I had one on 27th March and was really hopeful that the petition would get a good boost. Just after that on one day the increase was 2509 and the next 1542. Unfortunately after that it slowed down again, which was disappointing and nowhere near the 48,000 plus. I do wonder, though, whether some of that number were duplicates which may have arisen as a result of the improvements to Hedgehog Street last year, although that wouldn’t account for all of it. I have begun to suspect that a lot of people don’t read their emails, or all of them, anyway.

I agree that not many people may be looking at the Forum, especially as hogs are only just beginning to return.

I don’t know how big the membership of BHPS is, or whether they have sent their Spring communication yet, but possibly there may be more signatures as a result of that.

The point now is, that one signature from each of us is not enough. We all need to get more people to sign and pass the message on.

[Hogmeister]

Hi Nic,

The last email I received from Hedghog Street was on the 12th December 2017.

I have checked my spam folder and there are no emails from Hedgehog Street in there so it looks like, for some reason, they aren’t coming through to me and it could be others are in the same boat.

However, as you say, we all need to keep plugging away as best we can to get the message out there as we know there are plenty of people who care about our hogs as we can see from the 38 degrees campaign which now has over 142,000 signatures its just a shame we can’t connect the two campaigns.

[Hogmeister]

Hi Penny,

Thanks for sharing with us how 38 degrees got its name thats really interesting and quite clever thinking on their part.

I have also tried to leave a message on the 38 degree site without sucess as I don’t seem to get the option but others clearly have found a way to do this from the messages left. If I could have left a message I would have put in the link to the Petition Parliament campaign in there.

I saw their donation page and it wasn’t entirely clear to me how these donations got carved up. As you say predominantly it seemed they went to 38 degrees in order to fianace their campaigns but hopefully some money finds its way to hoggie causes.

[Catherine]

Hi Hogmeister

Hopefully your email to Emily will have better success than the one I sent her on 9 February in which I made the same suggestion. The reply I got 12 days later merely said “we have shared this petition on social media for all of our followers”. I felt at the time that she had seriously overestimated the number of followers on social media, but, disappointed to say the least, I left it at that. I think these organisations ought to wise up to the fact that we don’t all use social media (and after reading heaps about it all lately I’m jolly glad I don’t). The impression I get about social media is that people take a brief interest in something and then move on to the next thing.

It’s also interesting that Nic (amongst others I’m guessing) has now received an email about the petition but you haven’t and neither have I or my husband. I’m wondering if something went wrong with a mass emailing attempt.

[Penny]

No emails for me either. The last one that I had from Hedgehog Street was on the 8th Sept 2017! 🙁

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