Trail cam and night vision optics to Derbyshire!

Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund #6: Derbyshire Against The Cull

We set up the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund earlier in the summer this year to help put ‘eyes in the field‘, empowering people to protect British wildlife.

We set the fund up because we know that many people who monitor are largely unfunded volunteers and often have no umbrella organisation to support them. That means - in the case of groups like Derbyshire Against The Cull (DATC), which is 'a coalition of angry Derbyshire locals opposed to the mass murder of badgers' - they pay to put fuel in their cars and organise themselves for a series of long nights patrolling large areas of countryside to keep badgers safe. Like so many people up and down the country DATC are made up of compassionate, knowledgeable individuals prepared to sacrifice countless hours to protect wildlife.

It's hard to believe that volunteers like these are still having to go out and fight for the existence of one of the UK's supposedly most protected mammals, but as we reported just last month the government's 'badger cull is far from winding down'. By the end of 2022’s cull, contractors had killed up to 210,555 badgers! If each zone hits its maximum number of kills this cull season, by the end of January 2024 a staggering 260,000 badgers will have been killed to protect the dairy industry.

As we have said before (and will keep on saying) Protect the Wild wants to do our bit to help tackle badger persecution and end the cull. One way we can do that is to help make things a little easier by donating the equipment that activists or their group may need.

How do we know what they need though? Because they tell us! We always have a conversation with every group before we fund them, checking exactly what they need and how it will be used - in DATC's case night vision kit and an HD trail cam. Once everything is sorted out, we ask recipients to write a brief note about their group and how they'll use the kit we provide. That's because, as we explain below, our funds come from our supporters. We want to do our very best to show you that we are using those funds as efficiently and as effectively as possible. It also means that any thanks given by groups in these posts should go to you!

"Everyone at Derbyshire Against The Cull would like to say a massive thank you to Protect The Wild and all their supporters.

The generosity of their donation has allowed us to purchase a trail camera and night vision binoculars. Both essential pieces of equipment in our endless work protecting badgers and checking setts, not just during badger cull weeks but all year round.

With the support of organisations like Protect The Wild our work in badger conservation and fighting those who wish to persecute wildlife is that bit easier.

Thank you from all at DATC."

• Derbyshire Against The Cull are on Facebook at DerbyshireAgainstTheCull. To pass on any information/tip offs please call 07717 466953.

• If you'd like to find out more about DATC, Protect the Wild's Charlie Moores spent two inspirational days with the group almost exactly two years ago. He recorded a 30 minute podcast with various DATC members which can be found at Derbyshire Against The Cull | Voices from the Cull Zone.

• To learn more about the protection badgers have in law and what to do if you see badger crime, please go to Protectors of the Wild | Badgers and the Law

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We’re working hard to raise the profile of the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund so that more groups (and more wildlife) can benefit. As part of that effort we’ve asked each recipient to explain what they do and how they are using the equipment we have provided – not only to show supporters how their donations are being spent, but also to encourage other groups to apply! After all, the more ‘eyes in the field’ there are, the higher the chances that wildlife criminals will be caught, and the safer wildlife will be.

We are able to buy the equipment we give out because of paid subscriptions on Substack. While all our online content is free, any money we do receive from paid subscriptions is ringfenced and used to buy equipment to put ‘eyes in the field’. It’s a simple idea – but the best ideas usually are! If you’d like to know more we have explained it all in our post “What do we mean by “Empowering people to protect British wildlife“?

With your support we will be giving out many more pieces of equipment to groups over the coming months and years. And we will always keep you up to date with how your support is directly helping wildlife!

If you’re an individual or organization working in the field and would like to apply to our fund please read our T&Cs here first and use the online application form on the same page.