It's that time of year again.  Fireworks.

Actually, fireworks I think cause more of a problem around the year than they used to.  My dog doesn't mind them - but I really worry for those animals who are terrified of them, and what mindless idiots out there will do with fireworks for "fun" to cause misery and bring about fear in animals and people.

So the RSPCA has a petition you can sign calling on the Office for Product Safety and Standards to urgently review firework regulations, e.g. restrictin them to certain dates and only selling private use fireworks with a maximum noise level of 97 decibels.

Please sign this petition and let's minimise the distress fireworks cause to animals and people everywhere.

The RSPCA also has information on keeping pets safe and reducing stress for pets.  

World Animal Day takes place every year on 4^th October.   It’s a chance for each and everyone of us to pledge to make a difference to animals around the world, whether we do this for locals or animals on the other side of the world.

The mission of the day is “To Raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe”. 

The day unites the animal welfare movement, and celebrated in different ways around the world.

There are lots of events going on – you can search them out or add your own.  But there’s also a chance to pledge to make a difference.

And crucially, there’s a Pledge Board where you can publicly make a pledge to make a difference to animals. 

Read the pledges and you’ll see that some people pledge to make to help a specific species e.g. horses or work on an issue e.g. strays or vow to do something about their lifestyle e.g. going vegan or vegetarian or eating less meat.  There are all sorts of pledges listed for all sorts of animals.

The Pledge Board gives us all a chance to reflect on and state how we want to make a difference.  I started this website because I wanted to make a difference to help animals and hopefully make it easier for people to find very little ways or larger ways to get involved.  I think every single action – however large or small – makes a difference.

One of the reasons for this is that if you take one action, you feel good about it and it usually propels people into wanting to take another and another and another.  Before you know it, quite a few actions have built up. 

So have a think about what you would write on the Pledge Board and see what you can do to carry it through.  Every action makes a difference. 

Visit World Animal Day's website

Hedgehogs have been in serious decline since the 1950s but there are a couple of petitions by ecologist and author Hugh Warwick we can sign to help improve things for them.  

Hugh Warwick has been studying hedgehogs for over 30 years.  

The first petition to help hedgehogs. 

A key cause of their decline is that our landscapes have been fenced off again and again into small pieces of land. 

We need to ensure new housing developments include hedgehog highways – a 13cm hole in the bottom of the fence that will allow hedgehogs to move freely from garden to garden  in order to find food and find a mate.

Hugh Warwick is calling on the Government to ensure every new housing development builds in a hole for hedgehog highways, thus connecting gardens for hedgehogs and creating the highways they need to survive.

Please sign here to call on the Ministry of Housing and Planning to make hedgehog highways a legal requirement for new builds. It’s easy for developers to do.

Sign this petition here.

And of course you could (if you haven't done so already)...

Create your own highway for hedgehogs

Put a 13cm hole in your garden fence to allow hedgehogs to pass through freely.   It’s very easy for any of us to do, too, wherever we live.  Check out Hedgehog Street.  The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species run this together.    Over 53,000 people have already signed up to be Hedgehog Champions.

The second petition to help hedgehogs

There’s another petition on 38 Degrees by Hugh Warwick.  DEFRA has approved the A24 trap trap used in New Zealand to kill hedgehogs for use in the UK.  We need to put a stop to this trap being used.  DEFRA expects people to try to make sure hedgehogs aren’t killed or injured by the trap but there’s no-one to police it.

Sign the petition to ban this trap here.