What we achieved together for wildlife in 2025

It’s been a massive year for Protect the Wild and for the fight for British wildlife.

It’s been a massive year for Protect the Wild and for the fight for British wildlife.

Honestly, it would take me hours to list everything we’ve done in 2025. So instead, I want to share some of the highlights. The moments that mattered, the progress we made, and what you helped make possible.

This was our tenth year, and where the campaign to end hunting with hounds is concerned, we did not hold back.

Across the country, we gave loads of equipment to groups challenging hunts on the ground. Drones, walkie talkies, kit that genuinely makes a difference when cruelty needs exposing. We also launched Protect the Mind, which now provides activists with free monthly mental health support. That support matters more than most people realise, and I’m incredibly proud we made it happen.

I was also fortunate to be invited onto LBC and BBC Radio 5 Live to speak about the urgent need for a proper ban on hunting. The Radio 5 debate aired recently, where I had the chance to seriously challenge Countryside Alliance CEO Tim Bonner on the reality of hunting and was pretty happy with how it went!

Meanwhile, you helped do something extraordinary.

Together, supporters distributed campaign leaflets to over one million homes. That’s almost one in sixty households in the UK seeing the message that hunting with hounds is a cruel, outdated pastime that belongs in the history books.

After a summer of leafleting, the Protect the Wild team went to Downing Street to hand in our petition calling for a proper hunting ban, now backed by over 235,000 people.

Leaflets were just one part of how we reached the public in 2025.

Our animations exposing hound treatment and the vile, secretive practice of cub hunting went viral, reaching several million people. Across the year as a whole, Protect the Wild animations were viewed over 25 million times. That’s millions of people engaging with animal issues who may never have done so otherwise.

One animation in particular, on the need to ban snares, was seen by almost 10 million people and led to 70,000 signatures in under 48 hours. That petition now stands at 82,000+ and played a real role in pressuring Labour to commit to banning snares in the coming months.

We also focused heavily on research and evidence this year.

In 2025, we published the first ever dedicated report into foxhound welfare, uncovering 2,444 welfare incidents in just the last few seasons. We released a detailed report exposing how DEFRA continues to fail wildlife, and we revealed that over £2.4 million in taxpayer money has been handed to hunts since the hunting ban came into force.

Alongside this, we launched two new mini sites. One exposed the national scale of havoc caused by hunts (hunthavoc.info). The other, bloodbusiness.info, now lists 1,000+ businesses that support hunting and shooting, giving people the information they need to make ethical choices about where they spend their money.

We also took the fight against the badger cull to the next level.

Our government petition to end the cull passed 100,000 signatures, triggering a parliamentary debate where MPs from across the House spoke out against a senseless slaughter of an iconic British species. I confronted Professor Charles Godfray directly about the academic work used for years to justify the cull, and just a month ago I spoke on ITV national news to challenge the narrative again.

Today, there is just one cull licence planned for 2026. Still one too many, but a huge shift from where we were just a few years ago.

There were wins elsewhere too.

Barclays was blocked from installing bird netting after thousands of you signed our petition. The Durrell Trust stopped paid for deer stalking after sustained pressure. And in recent weeks we’ve been able to donate to some brilliant organisations and rescues, including Humane Wildlife Solutions, The Retreat, Noo Beginnings, and Happy Pants.

2025 was also a year of collaboration and building relationships.

Meeting Kevin Newell from Humane Wildlife Solutions was deeply inspiring. I had the chance to interview Neil Duncan-Jordan MP about his work towards a proper hunting ban, and to sit down for a one hour podcast with Zack Polanski, the new leader of the Green Party. That spirit of working with others is something I want to carry forward into 2026 and beyond.

And yes, perhaps the most challenging moment of the year was completing the dreaded 24 hour non stop walk around Parliament, which I thought was a good idea at the time. It raised vital funds, but I cannot properly describe how mentally and physically tough it was.

Those funds were used to carry out the largest undercover investigation into the British bird shooting industry ever undertaken. I’ll leave that there for now, but the full findings are coming very soon in the new year.

As we look ahead to 2026, and at the commitments made by the government, we should take real pride in where we are as a movement. There is genuine reason for optimism, but only if pressure continues.

We will do everything we can to make sure promises are delivered. On banning trail hunting. On banning snares. On improving the lives of animals across this country.

None of this, past or future, is possible without you.

Without your willingness to sign petitions.
To donate when you can.
To buy a calendar.
To share our work.
To turn up and stand with us.

I am endlessly grateful for this community of compassionate, determined people who share my commitment, and obsession, with making the world a better place for animals.

And you have my word. I’m not going anywhere until we’ve done exactly that.

Rob

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PS. If you’re feeling inspired to chuck in a few pounds a month to support our ongoing work we would be so appreciative. You can do so here :)