friendly boar 🐗

A Yorkshire Dales gamekeeper asked visitors to put a dog on a lead and was reportedly met with abuse and threats of violence. One visitor cited a @FriendsDales webinar before calling gamekeepers “all evil criminals”. In March we put that incident to the charity’s trustees, asking how its “Eyes on the Skies” campaign checked claims and weighed the risk to local workers. On 30 April the Chair replied that the Board was satisfied and rejected any foreseeable rise in hostility. We asked how that conclusion was reached on 1 May, and again after a further webinar on 12 June. Neither letter has had a substantive answer. Professor Simon Denny’s 2025 report recorded more than 1,000 threats and 30 assaults against keepers on 58 English grouse moors in one year. Those figures predate the webinars, but they are why the risk deserved an answer. We have now asked the @ChtyCommission to examine what evidence the trustees relied on, and what checks came before the May webinar.