Animal Aid

Animal Aid has called upon all the organisations involved in the Lundy rat cull to end the slaughter. To find out how you can help, read on.

Please write to the conservation organisations involved - English Nature, the National Trust, the RSPB and Landmark Trust - stating that you are outraged about the proposed cull (see addresses below). If you are a member of any of the organisations involved, please tell them that you are considering withdrawing your membership, and let them know why you are doing so.

Don't allow yourself to be fobbed off by a joint response from English Nature. English Nature may be the co-ordinating body, but all of these organisations are involved, and are therefore accountable for their actions and decisions. Keep contacting them until you receive a response from each of them, and send any replies you get to the Animal Aid office.

Animal Aid has leaflets and petitions available for distribution, email us to order copies. If you receive letters from any of the organisations involved the the cull asking for donations, please return the appeal in the freepost envelope provided explaining that you will not give them money while they are killing wildlife.

Points to include in your letter:

• Slaughter in the name of conservation is inhumane and a waste of resources.

• Top-table conservation groups should be working to prevent more non-native species being released into the environment rather than engaging in such eradication programmes.

• Ask these groups why they think that the puffin population has only started to decrease over the last few decades, after co-existing with black ship rats for hundreds of years.

• The use of poison is inhumane, and there is the real possibility that other species might accidentally be attracted to the bait.

• Neither shearwaters nor puffins are endangered species worldwide and their decline on Lundy does not threaten the overall survival of the species.

The addresses to write to are:

• English Nature
  Dr Andy Brown, Chief Executive, Northminster House, Peterborough, PE1 1UA.
  Tel: 01733 455000
  Email: andrew.brown@english-nature.org.uk

• The Landmark Trust
  Peter Pearce, Director, Shottesbrooke, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3SW
  Tel: 01628 825417
  Email: s.wilkinson@landmarktrust.co.uk (his PA)

• The National Trust
  Fiona Reynolds, Director General, 36 Queen Anne's Gate, London, SW1H 9AS.
  Tel: 0207 222 5097
  Email: fiona.reynolds@nationaltrust.org.uk

• RSPB
  Graham Wynne, Chief Executive, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL
  Tel: 01767 680551
  Email: graham.wynne@rspb.org.uk

More information about Lundy Island can be found at www.lundy.org.uk

Click here for the Lundy rats campaign index.