We're launching the Protecting the Wild Support Network

Building on the success of the Equipment Fund we launched last year.

We have some news to announce - and we're pretty excited about it: the launch of the Protecting the Wild Support Network (aka - to save our typing fingers - 'the support network').

What (we're hoping you'll be asking) is the 'support network'? Well, thank you for your interest. The Support Network is our way of building on the success of the Equipment Fund we launched last year.

As you may well know, the Equipment Fund is essentially all about giving equipment to otherwise unfunded and unsupported groups who are working in the field to protect wildlife.

In nine months we've been able to respond to requests for new equipment from a dozen groups. There are now HD camcorders trained on hunts in the Cotswolds and across Yorkshire; monitors are better protected by bodycams on Salisbury Plain and in Somerset; there are trail cams set up in Derbyshire and West Yorkshire; and groups can keep in better radio contact with each other in Shropshire, Cheshire, and East Yorkshire. We've even been able to send a drone to Cheshire which recently filmed hounds from the Cheshire Hunt tearing through a hedge and across a road - proving yet again that hunts simply don't lay scent trails for their hounds to follow as they routinely claim.

Fighting animal cruelty? We’ve got your back!

As good as that is, we want to do more in the years to come. Much more. To be able to make good our vow that ‘If you’re fighting animal cruelty, we’ve got your back!’.

So we've come up with something bigger and better. 'Equipment Fund 2.0' or 'Equipment Fund Plus' if you like...though we'll be using the name 'support network' from here on in.

The Support Network will still provide equipment to groups via the Equipment Fund just as before (it works, we won't be changing that in the foreseeable future), but we are now also offering groups in the support network priority access to that equipment, more promotion through our social media platforms (over the 2023 Christmas period our messages on social media were viewed over SIX million times alone), and our personal help and support whenever we can give it.

We see the Support Network as giving longer-term help, more predictable funding, and more of a commitment from us to the remarkable individuals who give up so much of their lives to protect wildlife from hunts, shoots, and culls.

As we say, if you’re fighting animal cruelty, we’ve got your back!

Content please.

Like activists everywhere, we want to protect wildlife and we think supporting front-line groups is a really good way to do that.

But the more our paid subscriber numbers grow, the more there will be in the ‘pot’ of funding available to groups, and the more equipment we can provide. We think the way to help that happen is by sharing the stories of the groups in the Support Network. Their successes and their work. Sharing content will be very important to the growth of the Support Network.

In return for our support, therefore, we simply ask that groups ‘support’ us by sharing content like blogs, HIT reports, or images and video footage for us to publish on our substack and/or social media feeds.

We think of it as a ‘virtuous circle’. Sharing content means we support you, you support us, paid subscriber numbers go up, everyone in the Support Network benefits - and of course more wildlife can be protected.

What more do we want?

Absolutely nothing. For any groups reading this, we can reassure you that we know that the front-line activists we work with are fiercely independent and rightly proud of how they organise themselves.

So we’ve designed the Support Network to be as 'hands-off' as possible.

• there is no club to join

• there are no 'membership fees'

• we’re not going to start calling you ‘part of Protect the Wild’

• in fact we will never tell you what to call yourself or tell you how to run your group

• you can leave whenever you want

• and just as now there is no cost whatsoever for the equipment and support we provide. 

There is more information on our website at Protecting the Wild Support Network or you can download a pdf with even more information right here. Talking of which, this is the point where we'd like to say thanks to Roaming Sabs, Teesside Anti Blood Sports, and Helmsley Monitors for their comments and suggestions on a draft document we sent out a few weeks ago which has led to the final version of the Support Network we're launching today.

None of this would be possible without you!

Protect the Wild works very hard to protect wildlife. We innovate and try to think of new ways of doing things. When we set up the Equipment Fund we were sure it would fill a gap that needed to be filled. We think the Support Network will do that job even better.

But while we can all aim high, we know that none of us gets anywhere without help. Which brings us to a key partner that has allowed us to evolve the Equipment Fund like this and to think bigger, one that we will never fail to be grateful to - and that's our Substack paid subscribers.

When we set up on Substack last year we made two promises that we will never break: 1) our content will always be free, and 2) if anyone chooses to take out a paid subscription (monthly or annual) the money from that subscription will be put into the Equipment fund 'pot' and used exclusively to 'empower people to protect British wildlife'.

We're incredibly grateful that just over 600 of you have chosen to support us in this way now. It's humbling. But more importantly (and we've written this before but we will repeat it here because it is absolutely sincere and true) your support of the Equipment Fund is so much more than what you think about us - it’s about helping real people protect real animals. It’s about making a real difference on the ground where it matters most.

We are making a difference - all of us. That’s a wonderful thing for activists like us to be able to say. With the launch of the Support Network we can make even more of a difference for even more groups - and of course for even more animals.

• Are you a group interested in being a part of the Support Network? Please download our Protecting the Wild Support Network pdf for more information. If you’d like to get in touch please use the Contact Form on the Support Network page or email Charlie Moores at network@protectthewild.org.uk

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Protecting wildlife is difficult, takes huge personal sacrifice, and can be dangerous. That’s why we set up our Equipment Fund in the first place - so we could all come together and show just how much we value the groups we’ve been privileged to support since last summer.

We are only able to give much-needed equipment to monitors and organisations because of paid subscriptions on our Substack. While all our online content is free, any money we do receive from paid subscriptions is ringfenced and used 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 you are directly helping wildlife!