NEW BHPS PETITION AGAINST A24 TRAP, PLEASE SIGN!

[Penny]

Hi everybody,

I have just realised that the BHPS petition against the horrific A24 trap, that can potentially kill hedgehogs on mass and wipe out entire colonies, is up and running again. We need to reach 100.000 signatures by the 1st June 2018 if we are to stand any chance of triggering a debate in Parliament and have the DEFRA approval withdrawn.

For those not familiar with the campaign, the last petition reached nearly 30.000 signatures in six weeks, but was closed early in May 2017 due to the snap election and parliament being dissolved. The signatures cannot be rolled over so we are starting again from scratch.

Here is the link to the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206274

Here is the link to the trap info on the BHPS petition page:
https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/a24-rat-stoat-hedgehog-trap/

Please help spread the word. Even if you are not on social media, you could email the link to people who are, or put up some campaign posters. Where hedgehogs are concerned, people are usually only too willing to help. If you know of any teenagers with hundreds of friends, just think how quickly the word could spread.

https://flic.kr/p/T35eVt

[Nic]

Hi Penny

Well done for spotting that.

It is a shame it is so quiet on the forum at the moment. It is so important that everyone signs. It may be a bit more of an uphill struggle as lots of people may think they have already signed and don’t need to again. Is it is possible to put something on the poster to make people realise they need to sign again?

[Penny]

Hi Nic,

You must have read my mind, I will see what I can do.

I don’t know if you are aware, but Chris Grayling MP, the Secretary of State For Transport has recently become a Hedgehog Champion, so at least we have some support in Parliament. 🙂

[Nic]

Hi Penny

Yes, I heard about Chris Grayling. Let’s hope he lives up to his title. The Conservative Party seem to have shown a little more interest in environmental issues recently too, so maybe will be more receptive now.

Last time I checked the Petition it was the third most popular petition with over 100 signatures in the last hour, which is brilliant, but I think BHPS need to update their page. It still says about the old petition. If we can keep it on the front page of the Petitions, more people see it and maybe sign it who wouldn’t otherwise have known about it.

[Nic]

Hi Penny

Have just checked the petition and it went up by about 2,700 from yesterday morning! Really good news, but wish I knew why there was a sudden increase. It was even one of the 3 most popular again for a short while, although that seems to be dominated by school and health type things. It is now over 6,500. Just hope it continues that way. If all the approx. 47,000 registered on Hedgehog Street signed and got one other person to sign, it would reach the 100,000 in no time.

[boxcar]

i wonder how it differentiates birds, other mammals or children poking at it?

[Penny]

Hi Nic, Boxcar,

The point is, the A24 trap can’t differentiate between species; anything that happens to poke its nose in the wrong place is bludgeoned and we all know how inquisitive hedgehogs are. The trap can then reset itself over and over again, with any casualties swiftly carried away by scavengers. 🙁

Glad you pointed out the other petition Nic, to ‘make hedgehogs a protected species’, let’s hope that this time they get their day in Parliament!

[Catherine]

I’m trying to do a bit more this time regarding the petition so I’m in the process of printing off and distributing around our village (possibly around 1,800 dwellings) Penny’s 4-to-a-page reminder leaflets on the BHPS webpage. I’ve added two text boxes to the leaflets – one asks people to send a link to the petition to their friends and/or put one on their social media page, the other briefly explains why they need to sign the petition again even if they signed last year.

So far I’ve distributed about 450 leaflets; it’s harder to do than I thought it would be but it is providing me with much needed exercise! Who knows – it only needs a few leaflets to drop through the letterboxes of people who have mega-size contact lists and the lovely prickly ones may well get their day in Parliament.

[Nic]

Sounds like you are doing a brilliant job, Catherine. How did you get the extra text boxes onto the posters. I haven’t done any poster putting up yet, mainly because of: ‘why they need to sign the petition again even if they signed last year’. Is there any chance you could put your version somewhere accessible for us to use?

[Penny]

Hi Catherine, Nic,

You must have read my mind Catherine, after the heart wrenching film about the hedgehogs decline on Winterwatch I was spurred into action and in a moment of madness ordered 2500 A5 (updated for 2018) petition flyers/posters. Goodness only knows how I am going to deliver them all, especially if you have found 450 hard going, but like you say, at least it’s good excerise even if it’s a bit chilly at the moment.

If anyone in South Notts would like to deliver a few, please let me know.

https://flic.kr/p/246BADx

[Nic]

Thanks for that Penny – or should I say Chief Poster Designer. 2500!!! You’ve certainly got your work cut out there. Hope you get some help. I’m a bit far away, unfortunately.

[Penny]

Hi Nic,

I don’t know what came over me, but I did some shopping around on the internet and the more flyers that you ordered the cheaper they became. To put it into perspective, 2500 flyers (including postage) cost far less than one month’s gym membership! As well as posting them through letterbox’s, I plan to take a few into hedgehog friendly business’s, vets, pet shops etc and leave some on the counter…and of course, our local MP!

We need to get to the 100,000 mark everyone, hedgehogs don’t have the benefit of time, they are living on a knife edge!

[Nic]

Hi Penny

Must be a lot cheaper than printing them off from the computer. The ink in my printer is running a bit low and your latest poster came out with the background an interesting shade of pinky/purple and the writing yellow! Surprisingly it looks better than it sounds and the hedgehogs came out brown, so I’ll probably use it anyway.

Sounds brilliant what you are planning on doing. Good luck and I hope you get lots of responses.

[Catherine]

Hi Penny, Nic

Sorry Nic, it seems that you can only put a link to something on here if it is already on this site or on another website. So I don’t think I can provide a link to a document that is just in a personal folder. I have no IT skills to speak of, I just called up the editing toolbar and played around with it to get what I wanted. I can’t actually tell you what I did, it was just fluke that I ended up with something reasonable.

Penny, I have found delivering the leaflets hard going for two reasons. The first is that when apportioning the village street map into areas I might cover each day, I just looked at the streets and gave no thought at all to distances from pavement to letterbox. This has turned out to be a big issue in the older parts of the village where properties are built on far more generous plots. Paths and driveways can sometimes be 4 times the distance between properties – and you walk those twice. The other reason is that although I’m printing the leaflets on letterhead quality paper, which is just a little bit thicker than the standard printer paper I use, nevertheless – though this could be down to my poor postman skills – I have found it hard to push the leaflets through letterboxes that have those brush draught barriers (which is most of them). So much so, that on my first trip out I took a fair bit of skin off my right hand. I then found I couldn’t deliver the leaflets with normal gloves on, so I took some scissors to a pair of old non-knitted gloves to make them fingertip-less. Please consider your hands Penny.

I printed off another 300 leaflets yesterday so I’m off out again shortly! Let’s hope it all pays off.

[Nic]

Hi Catherine

That REALLY sounds like dedication! If only the hedgehogs knew what lengths you have been to – just for them.

Your description of using the computer sounds a bit like me too.

[Author]

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