Campaigns
World Leading Breeding | Public Awareness | bansnares.com

We approach each threat to the wildcat's conservation with a variety of campaigns aimed to create change or find solutions that conserve the wildcat in the wild and encourage people of all ages, nationalities and walks of life to get involved in saving these unique creatures.

You can support all of these campaigns by donating to the charity or joining as a member!

Wildcat Haven
Inspired by our patron Mike Tomkies, Project Wildcat Haven is a campaign designed not just to improve a few bits and bobs or get a couple of press articles; Wildcat Haven is a campaign designed to save the Scottish wildcat forever. More information on just how we plan to do it coming soon!

Supporting captive breeding-for-release
We don't want to see wildcats is in captivity, but captive breeding may be the last hope this species has. We are working closely with the official breeding program on ambitious plans to create a new standard in captive enclosures and drive forward breeding-for-release success. Find out more about our plans on the World Leading Breeding Campaign page and more about the excellent work of the breeding program on the Breeding Program page.

Get involved!
Spend a day at a breeding program park (links here)
Volunteer at a park caring for wildcats and other animals
Donate to the SWA or direct to breeding parks
Take part in the sponsorship programs some parks offer
Organisations and individuals able to make a donation of £500 or more get involved now!

Results!
Our World Leading Breeding Campaign has already begun with the readers of Your Cat Magazine in the UK pledging donations for life and education enhancing enclosure improvements later this year.

Public awareness campaign
Public awareness of the wildcat and its threats is essential; control of domestic cats can only happen if everyone understands the issues, and public and private financial support is essential in funding research and conservation. We will seek to connect with the wider public through a mixture of promotional and publicity activities.

Get involved!
Learn the facts from this website then tell everyone!
Put us in your top friends on Myspace
Join one of the many Facebook groups
Write a wildcat blog or add one of our campaign banners
Submit articles to newspapers, magazines or newsletters
Contact Coffee Films to arrange a screening of the film
Arrange fundraising at Highland Games or cat shows
Contact us to volunteer on our stall at cat shows

Results!
Over the last year incredible support from newspapers, magazines, TV news, radio shows, websites, blogs, Facebook groups, Myspace pages and simple word of mouth have elevated the Scottish wildcat from the bookshelves of a few dedicated scientists and conservationists into the eyes and ears of literally millions of people across the world; please keep it going!

Calling for a ban on snares in Scotland
Alongside a number of other charities we are pressuring the Scottish National Parliament to ban the use of snares in Scotland. These indiscriminate traps are set for foxes and rabbits but are just as likely to kill badger, mountain hare, otter, domestic cat and wildcat. We support the complete ban on these cruel trapping devices in line with many other European countries and hope to help farmers find practical, effective and humane alternative means of pest control.

Get involved!
Visit the campaign website at www.bansnares.com
Write letters to politicians and sign the petition for a ban
Tell your friends and get them to write too!

Supporting scientific research
Scientists have been warning the world for many years that the Scottish wildcat is in a critical state, and in the future continued research and understanding will prove essential to conserving their numbers and rebuilding the population. Wildcats are extremely hard to study in the wild and research can be very expensive, however we hope to take a positive step forward in building an ongoing database of Scottish wildcat sightings which will help build a clearer picture of how many wildcats there are, where they live, and where the purest examples are still surviving, in the future we will hope to be involved in far more ambitious research projects.

Get involved!
If you see a wildcat tell us via our sightings page
Click the link to learn how to identify a wildcat

Results!
Since launching our call for sightings in March 2007 we have received almost 400! The data has already been used in the recent SNH population survey; results of which are to be published by SNH very soon.

Further campaigns
We are still planning further campaigns, full details will be added here through 2009!