Protect the Wild

Say no to data centres, yes to wildlife! Denham Data Centre is proposed by Mulberry Commercial Developments for 11.37 hectares of designated Green Belt land on the north-western outskirts of London. The site is situated in the Colne Valley Regional Park, sandwiched between the M40 and a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) known as Denham Quarry Park. Despite its proximity to a major motorway, the area is teeming with common and unusual wildlife.

Defra’s Baroness Sue Hayman has written to us about the upcoming changes in hunting legislation, and we’re dissatisfied with her letter. Since July, thousands of you have joined us in writing to both Baroness Hayman and Dame Angela Eagle - Defra’s new head - to demand that drag hunting doesn’t become the next hunting legislation loophole. Almost 20,000 of you made your concerns heard. Inundated with emails, Baroness Sue Hayman has now responded to Protect the Wild.

When wildfires tear across the countryside, the human impact rightly makes headlines. But another group of victims is too often forgotten. The wild animals who have nowhere safe to go. They cannot understand why their homes are suddenly engulfed in flames. They cannot call for help. Some desperately try to flee, while others hide beneath the ground or shelter in nests as the fire closes in around them.

The pro-hunt lobby is back out in force to try and keep Gannet killing legal in Scotland. This time, Donald MacKinnon, Labour MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles), used First Minister’s Questions to defend the Guga hunt and seek reassurance from the head of the Scottish Government that this year’s licence rejection did not mean a permanent end to their cruel pastime.

The catapult attack at Southsea pier has not been the only one. In Cumbria, on July 7th, two teenage boys filmed themselves using a catapult to shoot a gull off a roof. In the video the gull can be heard letting out a pain filled squawk, then seen falling from the roof. What makes this more gut wrenching, is that the boys run away laughing and sniggering at the suffering and pain they have just caused an innocent, defenceless animal.

This month, Protect the Wild attended two important protests. One was in Edinburgh on 3 September, where members of 14 grassroots groups from local communities organising against data centres across Scotland joined together to demonstrate outside the Scottish parliament calling for a Scotland wide moratorium. The second was in Norwich on 5 September, where protesters gathered outside City Hall to call for a halt to the construction of the Apex Park AI data centre.

Protest against AI data centres in Edinburgh Tomorrow (16 September), the Scottish Greens will force Holyrood to vote on the rapid proliferation of AI data centres across the nation. Describing the governing SNP’s position on the projects as showing a “lack of action and clarity”, the Greens want the government to make clear its position on ‘hyperscale’ data centres of 50 megawatts (MW) or above.

We have just launched the 6th edition of our Protect the Wild British Wildlife Calendar and once again it is packed with absolutely breathtaking photographs from our incredible supporters.

Pigeons really are up against it. Branded as “vermin” or “pests”, they’re routinely treated with cruelty, left to die tangled in bird netting, targeted in culls, or shot for sport. These are animals humans domesticated and then abandoned, and they deserve far better than the way they’re treated today.

This is some of the saddest footage I have seen from our entire undercover investigation into the bird shooting industry. I found this desperately upsetting to watch. It shows a tiny pheasant chick lying helplessly on her back inside a feeder. Her legs are in the air. Her beak is wedged inside a narrow gap. She is trapped, terrified and completely unable to pull herself free. Our investigators put down the camera and released her, but it was too late. She was exhausted and already dying.