Our Woodcock petition passes 60,000 and 61,000 signatures

Our petition to limit the Woodcock shooting season is moving on again (after a little snooze). Yesterday it passed 60,000 signatures and 61,000 signatures – and Chris Packham is very happy about it!

We wonder whether Chris Loder, the MP for West Dorset, is as thrilled as Chris – his constituents are now a long way ahead in the list of constituencies.

Here are the leading 35 constituencies – all with more than 200 signatures;

1. 1. West Dorset, Chris Loder MP – 412 signatures
   2. North Norfolk, Duncan Baker MP – 345 signatures
   3. Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey MP – 345 signatures
   4. Derbyshire Dales, Sarah Dines MP – 332 signatures
   5. Central Devon, Mel Stride MP – 317 signatures
   6. Torridge and West Devon, Geoffrey Cox MP – 310 signatures
   7. South Norfolk, Richard Bacon MP – 297 signatures
   8. Broadland, Jerome Mayhew MP – 277 signatures
   9. Totnes, Anthony Mangnall MP – 263 signatures
   10. North Dorset, Simon Hoare MP – 261 signatures
   11. Norwich S, Clive Lewis MP – 260 signatures
   12. High Peak, Robert Largan MP – 260 signatures
   13. Mid Norfolk, George Freeman MP – 254 signatures
   14. S Dorset, Richard Drax MP – 253 signatures
   15. Stroud, Siobhan Baillie MP – 244 signatures
   16. Tiverton & Honiton, Richard Foord MP – 241 signatures
   17. St Ives, Derek Thomas MP – 236 signatures
   18. Sheffield Hallam, Olivia Blake MP – 234 signatures
   19. Wells, James Heappey MP – 233 signatures
   20. Somerton and Frome, David Warburton MP – 233 signatures
   21. North West Norfolk, James Wild MP – 232 signatures
   22. Lewes, Maria Caulfield MP – 231 signatures
   23. East Devon, Simon Jupp MP – 223 signatures
   24. Isle of Wight, Bob Seely MP – 222 signatures
   25. Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas MP, 220 signatures
   26. Brecon and Radnorshire, Fay Jones MP – 219 signatures
   27. Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake MP – 216 signatures
   28. Bury St Edmunds, Jo Churchill MP – 214 signatures
   29. Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith MP – 208 signatures
   30. South East Cambridgeshire, Lucy Fraser MP – 208 signatures
   31. Ceredigion, Ben Lake MP – 207 signatures
   32. Arundel and South Downs, Andrew Griffith MP – 206 signatures
   33. Central Suffolk & N Ipswich, Dan Poulter MP – 202 signatures
   34. S Suffolk, James Cartlidge MP – 202 signatures
   35. SW Norfolk, Liz Truss MP – 200 signatures

Here’s a map of where the signatures come from – everywhere! But SW England and East Anglia are particularly strong areas of support. It’s good to see that Therese Coffey’s constituents are sending the Defra Secretary of State a strong message on what she should do.

For the last 53 days and for the next 8 days it is legal to shoot Woodcock in the UK – we are trying to change that. We want the shooting season curtailed to protect the declining UK breeding population. Our petition calls for shooting to cease in October and November and be limited to December and January. This is even what some shooters and shooting organisations want but they are prepared to leave it up to the good will of shooters to abstain from a legal activity whereas we want the shooting season to stipulate no shooting in October and November.

Westminster Parliament petitions run for 6 months, and we still have a little over two months to go. We think it will be a struggle to reach 100,000. We need your help – not just in signing the petition yourself but in finding a few others to sign it too.

Every signature counts, whether it is the 7th in Foyle or the 413th in West Dorset. 

Please share the petition link – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619615 – you can help move things along even faster. Thank you.