NEWS AND COMMENT: Personally, I am pleased to be told by the Daily Mail that Boris and Carrie Johnson feature their dog Dilyn on Downing Street’s official Christmas card for the second year in a row in a break from tradition which encourages prime ministers …
NEWS AND COMMENT: Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting has criticised the UK government for dragging its heels on banning the importation of hunting trophies primarily from Africa. Although trophy hunting imports from endangered species will be banned this week, there …
UK NEWS AND COMMENT: It’s been mooted that sniffer dogs are to be deployed across the parliamentary estate in a crackdown on drug abuse by MPs and their staff and ancillary workers. The Speaker has promised to call in the police because there is growing …
Exotic pets are popular in the UK. The word “exotic” means wild animal in this context. Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act licences were issued for the keeping of 3,951 wild animals in Great Britain (2020). The number of exotic pets has increased since 2000. …
NEWS AND COMMENT: Defra is planning to cull wild parakeets in Britain. They are an invasive species but I don’t see the need to cull them. They’ve been described as the ‘grey squirrels of the sky’ and they are Britain’s fastest-spreading species of bird with …
The UK is going through the last phases of Brexit negotiations. On 1 January 2021 the country leaves the European Union. It’s a complex process and one of the negotiation points is the pet travel passport scheme, which UK citizens have enjoyed as members of …
Recently it was in the news that the UK would ban the keeping of primates as exotic pets which is great news although long overdue. However, it has prompted a wider ban and there are calls now to ban the keeping of all exotic pets …
NEWS AND VIEWS (COMMENT): Shortly after taking office in 1933 the then US president, Franklin Roosevelt, set up the Civilian Conservation Corps with the intention of providing work for jobless young men. The project was successful in that 3 billion trees were planted and 800 …
NEWS AND VIEWS: Although £40 million is nowhere near enough to be pledged by Boris Johnson for green spaces and conservation jobs in England, it is a step in the right direction. Craig Bennett, the chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, welcomed the investment but …
