NEW BHPS PETITION AGAINST A24 TRAP, PLEASE SIGN!

[Nic]

Hi Hogmeister, Catherine and Penny

I think you may be using the wrong email for Emily, Hogmeister. The email I have is hedgehog@ptes.org
I agree with you about the social media thing, Catherine, the people who use it often don’t seem to realise that there are loads of people who don’t. If it had been me, I think I would have emailed back and pointed that out!

However, I usually find Emily is fairly quick at replying. Although it seems back to front, it seems to me good news if not everyone got their emails, because it would explain why so comparatively few responded and gives hope for getting more signatures. I wouldn’t encourage too many people to send emails to Emily about this, though, as I think one should be enough. We don’t want to have her time wasted when she could be getting on with more important things, for instance, possibly re-doing the emails and other hoggy duties she has to perform. It is just possible that she was staggering the emails. 48,000 is a lot to send at one time.

I think it is important to remember that we and Emily are clearly on the same side. She has been doing a good job, not least in tidying up various of the information on Hedgehog Street and her work on The State of Hedgehogs 2018. Until very recently the A24 petition has been on the home page of Hedgehog Street and the top item in the news section.

I don’t know, but it is possible, that as the 38 degree petition has been doing so well that they are tending to rely on that now. I can’t see how the government can ignore a petition with that many signatures, even if it isn’t one of theirs. It was always a big ask after the gov. petition was cancelled the first time round to get everyone motivated all over again for what many people may have thought they had already signed. I do think it is still possible to reach the 100,000, but it needs some serious motivation and I know my efforts at motivation are insignificant in that respect.

I think the important thing is, we are all on the same side and we all need to work together for the hogs.

[Nic]

Hi everyone

I have found out that this petition is still going full steam ahead! We still need to keep aiming for the 100,000 (or even more!) Hopefully, there should be a boost in numbers soon when more BHPS members and Hedgehog Champions find out about it. The 38 degrees petition can only be added motivation for this petition to succeed as well. It is clear from that, that people really do love hedgehogs, it is just making them aware that this petition exists.

I know Penny and Catherine, that you have been doing an amazing job delivering huge numbers of posters, etc. which is brilliant.

So keep up the good work everyone and keep spreading the word.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206274

[Jan-Marie]

Hi,

There is another petition campaign tool online that is readily available and anyone can start one – works in the same way by gaining links through interested parties and re-using mailing lists, so you can stay in the loop and pick and choose which campaigns interest you enough to vote on. It may be worth a go for this campaign as the numbers can really escalate quickly to get the need for change recognised and acted upon. its called Change.org.
On a similar note – I contacted the company that make these devices and after a bit of exchange and defensive language, I was sent a report that showed the results of a trial they had either conducted themselves or had conducted for them. If there is a way of getting this uploaded I can share it. I did forward my concern on the trial and how it had been conducted to PTES, but have no reply yet.

[Nic]

Hi Jan-Marie

Thanks for telling us about the other place which does petitions on line. As there are already two petitions about the same thing running, it doesn’t seem a good idea to start a third, although it might be useful for another occasion.

The 38 degree petition has got over 178,000 signatures in less than 3 weeks, so I think is doing very well.

I wasn’t sure what ‘trial’ you were talking about in your last paragraph. The https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206274 petition was started by the BHPS. This was similar to a petition which was started last year and got nearly 30,000 signatures in about 6 weeks. It then had to be stopped due to the General Election, with none of the signatures being allowed to be carried forward. As I’m sure you will realise, it is always harder to get signatures a second time round, hence our hope to encourage more people here on the Forum to recruit more additional signers. The thing about the https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206274 petition is that it, hopefully, triggers a debate in parliament if the 100,000 is reached which the others don’t necessarily.

[Penny]

Hi Jan-Marie,

That report from Goodnature (oh how I hate that name!) sounds interesting. To put a link on here it has to be located somewhere else on the internet, such as flickr or Twitter etc. Pinterest is also a possibility; I put a link to the BHPS petition on there yesterday.

I just did a search on Google to see if I could find out any more information on the A24 trap and that trial you mention. I couldn’t find the trial, but I found some other interesting information. According to the authorities in New Zealand where the trap was originally developed to exterminate our prickly friends, out of all the predators which pose a threat to their native wildlife, hedgehogs were at the bottom of their list, posing a threat only to shorebirds and possibly SNAILS! The six other predators on the list which posed much higher threats included cats, dogs and pigs! Cats posed a potential risk to sixteen other species, pigs seven and dogs six. Does that mean that household pets will be next on their hit list then…just a thought!

[Jan-Marie]

ok – I’ll try and get it uploaded to somewhere on the Internet and send a link. The methods used in the trial make for some unpalatable reading for any hog lover, and questionable ethics I have to say!

[Nic]

Hi Jan-Marie and Penny

Thanks, Penny for clarifying, I hadn’t realised you were talking about the makers of the trap, Jan-Marie, I stupidly thought you were talking about petition organisers and petitions (!) so my reply probably didn’t make a lot of sense to you.

I am surprised they let you have that information. I still think that it might be a good idea to talk to BHPS about it, though. They will be the ones who have to fight for the hogs against the trap if the matter ever gets to parliament and it could potentially be useful in relation to that. The trap promoters have been doing a lot of PR on their website trying to look like a hedgehog friendly organisation. Personally, I would be inclined to try to get the information to the BHPS before trying to load it on here. That should be fairly straightforward. If it is as bad as you say, perhaps the forum is not the right place for it?

[Jan-Marie]

ok – will send to BHPS in the first instance – is there a preferred contact for this material? They may already have it as the trap company tell me they have been in regular contact with BHPS outlining the safety measures they have been introducing to the trap to mitigate risk of hedgehog sacrifice.

[Nic]

Hi Jan-Marie

I usually leave a message on their website. Link at the top of this page. Or if you think it is more urgent give them a ring. (Fay is probably the best one to speak to, but isn’t always in the office). I have usually found that I get an email reply fairly quickly (I don’t mean just the acknowledgement one which is virtually instant) and then you could send it via email if it isn’t too big.

Apologies again for misunderstanding what you were saying. Put it down to having had to reload my computer for the third time in 2 days – always a bit brain frazzling, I find!

[Jan-Marie]

That’s Ok – I sent it across to BHPS earlier today and got a fairly swift response from Fay herself – she indicated the report hadn’t been seen before by them, but will be following up with her scientific team. Fingers crossed it helps!

[Nic]

Hi Jan-Marie

That’s good. Sounds like it’s in the right place. I agree, fingers crossed.

Did you happen to mention that they told you ‘ …. they have been in regular contact with BHPS outlining the safety measures they have been introducing to the trap to mitigate risk of hedgehog sacrifice …. ‘?

BHPS say on their website ‘…In November 2017, we wrote to the UK distributers of the trap (GoodNature UK). We offered to help develop a more effective tunnel and suggested that once a suitable tunnel had been designed it should be fit as standard to ensure hedgehogs are not under threat from the trap. To date we have received no reply.’

[Hogmeister]

Hi Catherine & her husband, Penny and Nic,

I have now sent two emails to Hedgehog Street about the A24 traps and issuing emails to all hog champs and, sadly, I have yet to get any repsonse which is a bit disappointing.

As only Nic has received an email from Hedgehog Street about the A24 traps out of all of us that means only 20% of us have received this which, if this was representative of all hog champs across the board, that would only be around 10,000 of the 48,000 having received an email.

I can’t help feeling a big trick is being misseed here but, nevertheless, please all keep signing the petition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206274 and pelase keep putting the word out to all your freinds, families, work colleagues as we still have a long way to go as we are only at just under 30,000.

LETS MAKE A SAFER ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL OUR HOGS TO WAKE UP TOO!!!

[Nic]

Hi Hogmeister

I’m sure you will be pleased to know that I heard that more emails are going to be sent out to Hedgehog Street Champions. I got the impression that this has always been planned. I imagine they were being done in batches, as the numbers are so large. As you no doubt have as well, I keep hoping that the day will soon come. I was hoping that the petition would be boosted more when the BHPS mailing went out, but sadly not. Maybe most of them had already signed by then. The main thing is to try to get everyone to enrol at least 5 more people to sign and pass the message on. If that happened the total would be reached in no time.

Hog numbers here are well down on previous years, which is very worrying. It is such a shame that last year’s petition had to be stopped because of the general election. It is always so much harder to do these things a second time round. Also in the meantime who knows how many more of the ghastly traps have been sold.

[Catherine]

Hi Hogmeister, Nic and Penny

Yes, that is disappointing Hogmeister. I take your point Nic that we’re all on the same side but I agree with you Hogmeister that a trick has been missed. I don’t really understand what has gone wrong but overall I question the wisdom of relaunching the Petition at a time of year when hogs are not in the limelight and hog awareness week is at the very end of the 6-month period. Hopefully Nic more emails may help (we still have not had one) but my gut feeling now is too little, too late. Would be very, very pleased to be wrong!

Compared with the previous 3 years hog numbers here are what I would expect to see – 5 currently. At the peak of the season we are lucky enough to see 8 or more. I’m hoping to see our marvellous 3-legged hog. She usually is amongst the last to come back and amongst the first to wander off in the Autumn. She’s such a feisty lady and a joy to watch. And an inspiration. I hope she’s still out there somewhere.

[Jan-Marie]

Hello All,
in response to the last few posts above on the traps – I’m sure you are all more knowledgeable on this device than I am – I’ve only come across it from recent posts on BHPS website and thus contacted the distributors myself to understand a little more (hence getting a copy of that report).
I guess there are two things to focus on here.
1. Have the traps been signed off for use now in the UK – and are they being deployed as we sit and type?
2. Have we a plan for getting the petition actioned ASAP in order to stop the deployment and or withdraw the device from sale and use in the UK? Are the numbers big enough yet to start auctioning? I thought they were?

Going back to the distributors and report I saw – it focused on a trial that compared fatalities in non targeted species (our precious hogs) when device was used with various bait types and a tunnel entrance and different locating recommendations.
I don’t see that the subsequent sale and distribution of these devices has since mandated the use of tunnel entrances before use – but I’m unaware of whether its gone on sale at this time or not either?
Are any of you aware of whats happening on that front? Is there any way of finding out?
If hedgehogs can obtain a formal ‘protected species’ status then it would make a good argument for making these devices illegal in the UK………….
I know – that’s another petition currently – and I have signed them all todate and distributed as widely as I possibly can.

I’m still waiting to hear back from MP Chris Grayling, ‘Hedgehog species champion’ on more protection for hedgehogs – if I get anything I’ll share it.

[Author]

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