Simon Grace shared a link.
t2cSponhseo0rehed ·Please copy and past the form and send it to your MP. The email should include your full name, full address and telephone number at the bottom. This is our chance to help fight against the biasness and outright lies from Packham and crew.
You can get your MP's email address easily by following this link
https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP Dear, Sir/Madam,
I wish to make a complaint against the decision made by the regulator on the Wildheart Trust's coronavirus appeal and ask you review the evidence.
For some unknown reason the evidence provided clearly showed a breach of the Fundraising Regulator's code and very salient points dismissed as hyperbole still broke the code as they are covered by ‘exaggerating details’. As it stands the Regulator is ignoring its own code to protect a television presenter.
Fundraiser Regulator's code:
1.3.1. You and the fundraising materials you use must not mislead anyone, or be likely to mislead anyone, either by leaving out information or by being inaccurate or ambiguous or by exaggerating details.
The complaint
The complaint was again the Wild Heart Trust's coronavirus appeal in which Chris Packham clearly stated:
“At the Wildheart Trust we rescue emotionally and physically broken animals. Principally big cats from European circuses. Animals that have endured horrific conditions throughout the course of their lives…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQF4IR8Gvzs&t=7s
Chris Packham in a later public tweet backtracked from the ‘we rescue’ and emphasised the Wild Heart Trust did not rescue the Tigers.
2.20 “We were explicit we were not rescuing the tigers directly from the circus, but we were taking them from an outplacement centre”.
https://twitter.com/chrisgp.../status/1335879044118814720...
That from the horse’s mouth - Thus the Wild Heart Trust's coronavirus appeal video made by Chris Packham’s and by his own later admission is misleading the public. The Wild Heart Trust did not “rescue emotionally and physically broken animals. Principally big cats from European circuses”.
By no coincidence, AAP, the outplacement centre, backed away from their claims of a rescue in a national newspaper once the unfortunate episode and original video made of the transfer day came under scrutiny.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Did-Chris-Packhams-claims...
“…..adding that he 'did the right thing by donating them to us”.
“However, AAP stresses that the facility was not run by Mr Macaggi or his circus, and – crucially - it has not blamed him for their treatment there”.
The whole of Spain understood this to be a donation as per the multiple press reports already provided to the watchdog and the solicitor handling the transfer referred to it as a donation.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en...
Raquel López, De Animales' lawyer, explains that “from the circus they contacted me to help them find a good home for their animals, since they did not want them to end up euthanised, in another circus or in a bad place. I know that the circus family had taken very good care of the animals, and that they understood that it is time to take a step forward and for the animals to have a better life in a sanctuary. After solving legal procedures, to formally donate the animals to a sanctuary, the circus made the largest donation made in Spain of felines to a sanctuary, delivering seven tigers and a lion.”
The Crowd funder appeal
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wildheart-trust
The crowdfunded appeal claimed the following:
“While at the mercy of travelling circuses in Spain these defenceless animals were the victims of unimaginable neglect and cruelty living hellish lives confined within squalid beast wagons or crammed into tiny pens where they were left to fight for scraps of food in between performances.”
An outright lie and not even hyperbole. Spain has extremely strict rules governing the movement of circus animals and the tigers were routinely inspected by vet’s around once a month. I provided you with a stamped vet’s certificate (below) and this should have been sufficient to dispel this very nasty smear and deceitful way of playing on the publics emotions in an attempt to garner donations.
https://circusfix.wordpress.com/.../vet-stamped.../...
https://www.islandecho.co.uk/wildheart-sanctuary-says.../...
*After the complaint was dismissed as hyperbole, once again the trust stated the tiger was “suffering appalling treatment in his previous life”. The average lifespan for tigers in captivity is 14-16 years and the tiger they put down was “18 years old which is a grand old age for a tiger”. They had the tiger for three years proving the tiger was elderly and in good health when they were donated it.
I request that you please not let this manipulation and onslaught of outright lies continue. This sets a dangerous precedence for all groups requesting donations undermining the public's faith in the regulators meant to protect us from misinformation.
Your constituent,
