bloodbusiness.info FAQs

• What is the purpose of bloodbusiness.info?

  At Protect the Wild we aim to undermine support for hunting with dogs and shooting ‘live’ targets – birds and mammals. With this website we have a number of aims:

  Firstly, more and more of us are thinking carefully about how and where we spend our money. Most of us don’t want to support businesses that go against our beliefs or ethics. At Protect the Wild we think that includes businesses that are supporting the ‘blood business’ of hunting with dogs and/or shooting live birds or mammals (‘live targets’) – businesses from major hotels to small stores in villages, from magazines to farmers and ‘luxury’ retailers. We launched bloodbusiness.info to help us all make informed choices about our spending. As well as informing people we are also using the information we’re building up to launch fuller campaigns against specific businesses.

  Secondly, we were interested to see if we could collect enough information to understand just how widespread support really is for hunting with dogs and shooting birds and/or mammals – and conversely to learn if there is enough interest from consumers to justify the work that a site like this takes to keep current.

  Lastly, our long-term hope is that as the website grows and the number of visitors using it grows, more listed businesses will decide to take positive steps to be taken off our database by disassociating with the ‘blood business’ of hunting with dogs or shooting live targets.

• What is a ‘blood business’?

  We consider a ‘blood business’ to be the business side of ‘bloodsports’ – in other words the making of money from hunting with dogs and shooting live targets (birds and/or mammals).

  On this website we are therefore listing any business that is involved in, profits from, financially supports, and/or promotes in any way those ‘blood businesses’ that profit from hunting with dogs and/or shooting birds or mammals.

  This would include businesses that employ, have as Directors, or are owned or managed by current hunters or shooters; businesses including pubs and hotels involved with eg hosting hunt meets, hunt balls, or shoots; businesses that provide services to hunting and/or shooting; any business within the supply chain selling or trading goods that benefit hunting with dogs and/or shooting live targets; any media outlet (eg a magazine or website) that advertises hunting with dogs and/or shooting live targets; any landowner that enables hunting with dogs and/or shooting of live targets to take place on land they own.

  As we stress repeatedly we are not implying, accusing, or suggesting that any business we list on this site is acting unlawfully. We are just aiming to give visitors to this site a choice on how to spend their money based on personal preferences.

• How can I check whether a business is listed or not?

  Our website is designed to be searchable in many different ways (note we only search information held on the bloodbusiness.info server not external pages or sites.)

  You can search via a map (coming soon!), by searching all businesses in alphabetical order, or search using categories or keywords (eg hunt, shoot, or Boxing Day) using the search box on our homepage.

  If you don’t find a business that you’d like us to list, please use our Send Info Contact form.

• Where do you source the information you publish?

  The vast majority of the information we publish on a business (descriptions and addresses for example) is already publically available on public registers (like Companies House) or on the business’ own websites.

  Many businesses also advertise or list themselves on publically-available pro-hunting or pro-shooting websites or in widely-available magazines.

  We either source information ourselves or pro-wildlife supporters send it us us via our Contact page.

  We always insist on evidence or proof before listing a business (we never publish hearsay or rumour), we do not reproduce copyrighted imagery, we do not reproduce home addresses, and we make all reasonable checks to make sure that to the best of our knowledge the information we publish is accurate.
  

  We are always happy to correct a listing or remove it entirely if we have made a mistake and the information we have published is not accurate.

• I'd like to suggest a business to list. What do I need to do?

  We welcome suggestions for businesses we should list. Please check first that the business is not already listed (search our database pages which lists all businesses in alphabetical order or search using categories or keywords (eg hunt, shoot, or Boxing Day) using the search box on our homepage.

  If the business is not listed then please use our Send Info Contact form.

  We are being as careful as possible to be accurate and current, so we are asking supporters to send us specific details and proof/evidence from no earlier than 2023.

  Please let us have the name of the business and its location (many pubs, for example, have the same name – we want to list the right one!). If it has a website please let us know the address.

  As we say, we are asking for proof or evidence. Please give as much as possible. Evidence might include: a link (or a screenshot) to text or images on the website of the business showing support for hunting with dogs or shooting birds or mammals; a link to an online advert in a hunting or shooting magazine; an eye-witness account backed up by images or video.

  We can’t reproduce copyrighted images, but they may be useful for research purposes. If you took a picture yourself that we can use (or have the express permission of whoever did for us to use it) that would be great.

  Please send anything you have to us via our Contact Form and please let us know if you would like to be credited or not .

  We are a very small team, so please give us time to respond.

• Who sees emails I send you and what happens to them?

  We are very conscious of our duty to protect any personal information like names and email addresses sent to our database@ inbox with ‘bloodbusiness’ information.

  Only the senior team at Protect the Wild ever see the emails (a maximum of four people). They are never shared or distributed outside of that team, and never forwarded to another email address.

  We do not allow ‘volunteers’ who help collate external data on businesses for the website to see your emails.

  Once the information in your email has been logged and your email has been responded to it is deleted. No personal data is stored, collected, or used for any marketing at all, and you will not hear from us again unless you request us to contact you.

• I've emailed a suggestion of a business to list, how soon will it be added?

  It is currently taking up to several weeks to process and enter new listings.

  That’s a measure of how popular this site has become in a very short time, but we do understand that not seeing your suggestion posted quickly can be discouraging. Please do bear in mind though that there is (at the moment at least) no team here at Protect the Wild specifically devoted to the bloodbusiness site (the site itself doesn’t generate revenue and we will never have advertising on it), but every listing will be researched and written up as soon as possible.

  And again, we genuinely appreciate every suggestion that you send in to us.

• Are you suggesting that listed businesses are somehow 'bad'?

  No, we are in no way at all suggesting that any business listed on this site is ‘bad’. Many do important work, but they have also chosen to align with hunting with dogs or shooting mammals or birds in some way (sponsorship of an event perhaps, or publishing advertising aimed at shooters). We are simply giving consumers a choice about where they spend their money based on their personal preferences.

• Are you suggesting that listed businesses are breaking the law?

  No, we are in no way at all suggesting, implying or accusing any business or any individual of breaking the law and make that clear on every page. We are simply giving consumers a choice about where they spend their money based on their personal preferences.

• Are you suggesting a boycott of listed businesses?

  No, we are not suggesting boycotts of any of the businesses listed on the site, simply giving consumers information that allows them to choose where they spend their money based on their personal preferences.
  

• Are you asking site visitors to contact listed businesses?

  No, but it’s likely that some might. This would be beyond our control, but we are making it clear on every page of bloodbusiness.info that anyone doing so should remain polite and not harass or threaten owners or their businesses or they may risk prosecution.

• Are you trying to 'shut down rural businesses'?

  We’ve seen this ridiculous claim online. Leaving aside what it says about how vulnerable the claimants must see businesses that support hunting with dogs or the shooting of birds and/or mammals, it’s nonsensical for at least four reasons.

  Firstly, we are simply offering consumers a choice by providing information that is already available online – we are just collating it in one place.

  Secondly, choice goes two ways. If business owners are genuinely concerned they will lose important revenue from pro-wildlife consumers who don’t support hunting with dogs or the shooting of birds and/or mammals they always have the option to stop supporting hunting with dogs or shooting birds and/or mammals. That option will be influenced by the public, not this website.

  Thirdly, a good number of the businesses we list are not ‘rural’ – they are based in London and other major urban centres.

  Fourthly, a great many ‘rural’ businesses don’t want to have anything to do with killing wildlife. There is no single criterion that defines all ‘rural businesses’ and the followers of ‘country sports’ who are complaining about this site should stop pretending that there is.

• What if a business no longer supports hunting or shooting?

  We work hard to keep this website accurate and current, but of course businesses can change hands or change policy. Any listed business can contact us, and when they demonstrate that they don’t support (or no longer support) any blood business we will wholly delete the entry from our database.
  

• Can anyone upload information to bloodbusiness.info?

  Only site Admins (from Protect the Wild) can log in and upload information to the site. That’s to ensure a consistent quality of information, stop false information being uploaded, and deny ‘bad actors’ a route to hack or take down the site.

• Will you accept anonymous information?

  We encourage the public to send us information but we do have to know who that information is from or we could be sent ‘false flag’ data to deliberately try to get us to publish inaccurate data and undermine the integrity of the website.

  We will though never credit or publish the name of anyone who sends us information without their permission. In that sense while we will know who the information/data comes from no one else will.

• Do you contact businesses before listing them?

  Not usually, no, as we will be largely collating published data (from adverts on digital media and from websites owned by the business) and/or providing proof of the connections with a blood business.

  Where we can’t be certain of their support for a blood business we will either not list them or email or phone them to check before listing.

• Can a business pay to alter or remove their listing?

  We will absolutely not take or accept payment to remove a business that supports hunting with dogs and/or the shooting of ‘live targets’ (birds and mammals) from bloodbusiness.info

  If a business no longer supports hunting or shooting please use our Contact form to let us know.

• Do you list businesses that just offer clay pigeon or target 'shooting'?

  No, our focus is on businesses that support the shooting of ‘live’ targets – birds and mammals – not clays or recreational target shooting.

  While we know full well that many shooters use clays as ‘off season’ practice for shooting live targets and estates may offer clays as a ‘gateway’ to entice novice shooters into the ‘sport’ of shooting birds or mammals, where we can not be certain that a business that provides clay or targets is also supporting ‘live target’ shooting we don’t list them.

• Why do you list businesses whose Directors are also Directors of Hunts?

  Directors are typically appointed by shareholders at an Annual General Meeting. A resolution for the appointment is put to a vote and passed if a majority are in favour. Due diligence will have been undertaken to ensure the new appointment aligns with the business.

  Directors are in charge of the management of a company’s business. They make strategic and operational decisions. A Director participates in board meetings to enable the board to reach these decisions and make sure that the company’s obligations are fulfilled.

  Directors are effectively the agents of the company, appointed by the shareholders to manage the company’s day-to-day affairs.

  We are not suggesting or implying that because the Director of a business is also the Director of a Hunt they or the business are in any way at all acting improperly or unlawfully. We are flagging these roles up because we assume that the business has undertaken proper checks and are fully aware of who they are appointing. We are simply offering the public choice about where they spend their money based on the appointment and their personal preferences.

• Are you suggesting alternative businesses to use instead?

  No. There were more than five million businesses registered in the UK in 2023. Most will have no connections with hunting with dogs or shooting live targets at all, and even for those who ‘self-certify’ that they don’t we simply don’t have the resources to make the detailed checks to be 100% sure.
  

• Are you creating a list of businesses that pro-hunt or pro-shoot individuals could use?

  We’ve seen comments on social media suggesting this site has somehow ‘backfired’ and will be useful for hunters and shooters.

  Of course anyone could use this website. We’re not trying to filter out pro-hunt or pro-hunt individuals but we feel that most hunters and shooters will already know full well which businesses support their particular ‘hobby’. We feel it’s far more likely that the general public doesn’t know but wants to, and that they will be shocked to discover just how many businesses in the 21st century are apparently happy to support hunting with dogs and the shooting dead of birds and mammals.

  And rather than ‘backfiring’ as suggested, in reality should anyone try to attack the site for eg trying ‘to shut down rural businesses’ we now have a handful of saved screenshots of comments from hunters and shooters (very predictably) saying that they intend to use the site to visit eg pro-shoot pubs or pro-hunt venues.

  Hunters and shooters can’t have it both ways, no matter how often they seem to want to…

• Is there an app for bloodbusiness.info?

  No, we don’t have an app yet. It is something we are thinking about, but we will gauge the success of the website before committing to the funding needed to develop an app.

• Where did the idea for bloodbusiness.info come from?

  Protect the Wild has campaigned against venues and landowners that host or facilitate hunts and shoots for several years. In the spring of 2024 we launched a campaign asking that The Newt in Somerset stop allowing the fox killing Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt  to use their land. While the campaign was successful in raising awareness, The Newt refused to introduce an outright ban.

  It made us realise that there must be hundreds if not thousands of companies across the UK that continue to support hunting with dogs or shooting birds and mammals. It was clear that a searchable website of businesses that support hunting or shooting would be a really useful tool for wildlife lovers, helping us all choose how we spend our money based on our personal preferences.

  In publicly proposing the idea, the brilliant team behind ‘hunt pubs’ asked us whether we would be interested in taking over their feed! And along with offers of more data from our supporters we decided to invest in a new website and collate as much publically available information into one place as we possibly could. 

• When did bloodbusiness.info launch?

  We launched the website on 27 July 2024, with just 64 listings. In the first two days we received over 100 emails suggesting businesses to list! By mid-August 2024 we had listed over 300 businesses and responded to almost 400 emails.

• Who owns and operates bloodbusiness.info?

  The bloodbusiness.info website is owned and operated by Protect the Wild, a non-profit organisation, whose mission statement is to empower people to protect British wildlife.

  We do that in different ways including supporting front line groups; providing information through our primary website, our Substack, specially commissioned animations, and social media; and campaigning hard for legislative change. Our bloodbusiness.info website is yet another way we are working to help people make informed choices.

  Ultimately the aim of Protect the Wild is to end hunting with dogs, end the shooting of birds and mammals, and end badger persecution across the UK.

• How does bloodbusiness.info ‘empower people to protect British wildlife’?

  The bloodbusiness.info website is owned and operated by Protect the Wild, a non-profit organisation, whose mission statement is to empower people to protect British wildlife.

  There are many ways that Protect the Wild works to do that, but what all our approaches have in common is making information as widely available as possible.
  

  We believe providing that information enables and empowers all of us to make choices that protect British wildlife.