I love Jonathan Pointer’s intense, colourful and detailed portraits of game birds – and I’m always fascinated by the detail in the surroundings. He must spend hours painting every little leaf and flower, getting them not just botanically perfect, but correct for the time of year too. The video above is released to promote his [...]

It’s been a bit quiet on the blog lately – I’ve been busy with this and that, not least trying to write something meaningful for the magazine about the huge fuss over BASC’s involvement in the new Lead Ammunition Group. More on that in another post, perhaps. Meanwhile, I’ve also spent a couple of nights [...]

Here’s one for sale at www.animalgifts4u.co.uk Those sentimental bunny huggers at the LACS are desperately trying to trivialise the election, to the point where they are actually telling their supporters to go round with glove puppet foxes, to do the ‘Hello Mum’ thing behind candidates being filmed or photographed. Apparently this will undermine the serious [...]

It’s clever how Google put those ‘contextual’ ads next to blogs, photos and videos on websites. You may see some in the narrow column on the right of this blog page. Usually they are very well targeted – on this blog, for instance, I often see ads for shooting grounds, Fieldsportschannel.tv, the Countryside Alliance etc. [...]

So, DEFRA has released its Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes, which is laid before Parliament and will sit for 40 days before coming into effect (not counting days off for the election, recess, etc). Even then it’s not ‘law’ as such – but it will be used as [...]

We’ve had some heavy stuff on this blog lately, so some light relief is long overdue. It arrived in the form of an email from a colleague. To spare his blushes, I won’t name him, and it won’t give it away to say that he has a young lab, ‘R’, in the house. He takes [...]

Defra are setting up a "Lead ammunition advisory group" which will be chaired by John Swift of BASC. Defra will provide a secretariat (whatever that means), but the group will, it seems, consist of a whole lot of ‘stakeholders’ representing shooting, conservation, the gun trade, animal welfare, food health & hygiene, etc. All of which, [...]

Charities aren’t allowed to tell you which way to vote. The rules say they can’t campaign on behalf of one political party or another. When the RSPCA launches a website called ‘Political Animal’, and feels the need to put up a splash screen stressing they’re not telling you how to vote, they clearly feel they’re [...]

The RSPCA Injustic blog  reports a parliamentary answer which clarifies the legal position. Fact is, the RSPCA have no right to seize pets. Lord Elton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what authority, controls and supervision and in what circumstances officers of a charity are empowered to (a) remove a pet from its owner’s care, [...]

The jury has retired to consider its verdict, reports the BBC here. Someone calling him/herself "bobbyb" has added the following comment on an earlier post about this trial. Can’t say I agree with the sentiments expressed, but it’s interesting to get a view from inside the courtroom: Was in court today to hear Judges summing [...]