The Protect the Wild Equipment Fund in 2025

A few tweaks and a question for our supporters

Back in 2023 (which is starting to feel quite a while ago!) Protect the Wild built on an idea that had started under Rob Pownall and Keep the Ban - the grassroots group that grew into Protect the Wild when Rob realised he wanted to tackle bird shooting and the badger cull as well as continue the work to end hunting with hounds.

That idea became the ‘Protect the Wild Equipment Fund’, which provides equipment like bodycams, trail cams, radios, camcorders etc to monitor and sabs groups. That’s because we know that many groups or individuals who monitor or patrol are volunteers. They often have to buy the kit they need in the field themselves. We want to help make things a little easier by donating that equipment to them.

Last year we donated over £13,000 pounds worth of kit to 28 groups. You can read what they had to say to us - and that means all of us who supported the fund - right here.

2025 will be no different. We’ve been giving out equipment already of course and thanks to all those who chip in to our equipment fund we kicked off the new year with a £500 donation to the wonderful Cheshire Independent Monitors (Cheshire Indies) who have been out on the ground for the best part of eight years and who’ve supported in the past. They told us that they would “like to massively thank Protect the Wild and their subscribers for their very generous donation for a new Camcorder to replace one of our old ones which was damaged whilst sabbing a Hunt recently.” You are very welcome, and will be very welcome next time too!

We followed that up with a small donation to North East Hunt Monitors, a group who usually track the South Durham Hunt and who we have supported before (and will do so again if asked!).

Shortly after we gave two new camcorders to a group we have - again - worked with regularly in the past and will happily support into the future: Hull Wildlife Protectors. They are a wildlife protection, rescue & transport group based around East Yorkshire and have done a huge amount of work to report on the Holderness Hunt (a hunt featured in a Secret Monitor post in February 2024).

They told us:

“These two camcorders will be invaluable in helping us protect wildlife and gather evidence
for wildlife crimes in and around Hull. Their powerful zoom capabilities will allow HWP to monitor distant activities with precision, while their high-quality footage will ensure clear documentation of close encounters. We are very grateful to PTW for the continued help and support.”

And just this week we have sent a bundle of kit including bodycams and ‘gizmos’ to Geordie Hunt Sabs. They are ‘in the post’ as we write this and we will post an update here on Substack asap! In the meantime, we highly recommend their Facebook HIT Reports which have a unique ‘Tyneside’ style and are often extremely funny…

Funding

We have slightly tweaked our funding model for the Equipment Fund in two ways this year.

Firstly, some readers of this Substack are kind enough to subscribe - and as always all of the money raised through Substack subscriptions goes into the Equipment Fund pot. But we have also set up a Donorbox (linked to below) and any money coming into that again goes straight into the pot - and back out again as soon as possible (we don’t want to sit on these funds, we want them being used out in the field).

The second change is more about us seeing an opportunity to expand the reach of the Fund. A number of independent groups have asked us in the past if we would cover equipment for - and/or the costs of - undercover work. Having discussed it at some length we think this is a logical expansion of the work many groups we already support are doing anyway, and as long as the work is legal and fits our remit of ‘Ending Hunting, Ending Bird Shooting, Ending the Badger Cull’ we should support it. After all the idea of the Fund has always been to ‘empower people to protect British wildlife’ and as long as that is what is being done we think you would want us to support it too.

It’s impossible to say at this stage what proportion of the Equipment Fund might go towards undercover work, but we will always use what is of course your money as diligently and effectively as we can. Let us know in the comments below what you think. It matters to us that we have your support in this, and if you have any questions or comments we of course want to hear them.

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Sabbing and monitoring - protecting wildlife from the people who want to harm animals - can be dangerous and exhausting. But we, us, you, the groups we support are making a genuine difference, out in the field where it is needed. Hunts especially are losing support and being watched like never before. So, thank you to the groups out on the front line - and thank you to every single one of you who are supporting them.