When Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay launched their latest video, ‘Glenn Massacre’, the ideological bile that drives their existence was clear for all to see.
For years these two have regularly sought to abuse and caricature those who partake in driven grouse shooting with cheap generalisations, including once promoting a cartoon suggesting they should be shot themselves.
Chris Packham has been widely criticised many times, including for 'encouraging criminal violence' against shoots by masked thugs, suggesting that Barclays customers set fire to themselves and threatening to superglue a government spokesperson to a motorway.
But the latest attack by this pair of guttersnipes takes their levels of snarky classism towards Yorkshire rural workers to a new low.
In their video they depict a gamekeeper, with a thick Yorkshire accent and blackened teeth, as destroying the countryside. Had this classist and racist attack been taken against any other cultural minority, the pair would likely be in jail by now. But for whatever reason, rural workers seem not to receive the same level of protections against such hate attacks.
The video was described by one Yorkshire based farmer as being ‘disgustingly distasteful’ and representative of a liberal elite that seems to hate the countryside.
Packham lives in a multi-million pound house in the New Forest, as well as enjoying a luxury farmhouse in the South of France with paintings by Banksy and Damien Hurst on the walls. His sister, Jenny Packham, makes dresses that cost as much as £5,000 and has showrooms in New York, London and Paris.
Despite being surrounded by the trappings of wealth, Packham and Tingay, find it amusing to deride rural workers who do more to protect biodiversity and nature in the UK that these two sneering parasites would ever do.
Instead they enjoy the benefits of having an often well intentioned, yet factually naïve, fanbase who march along to their merry tune unaware of the damage they are causing on nature.
The hostilities incited by Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham has already had devastating consequences for gamekeepers and their families.
One ex-gamekeeper from Derbyshire, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals on his new business, was forced to leave the profession after targeted attacks left him physically and mentally ill. He said: “Seeing hundreds of messages of abuse and threats on social media impacted my health and my home life significantly. These people did not know me, but led on by false accusations, they attacked me, my girlfriend and my way of life.
Former Environment Secretary, George Eustice, reminded parliament recently “Gamekeepers do vital work as custodians of the land. They play an important role in the shooting industry, which delivers significant benefits to rural economies. Any form of abuse or intimidation is wholly unacceptable, and those responsible should feel the full force of the law”.
It is understood the police have already received complaints on the Glenn Massacre video.
It is no surprise that the majority of genuine ornithologists, in private at least, blame Wild Justice for many of the problems in protecting the UK’s wildlife after their incessant legal challenges to awarding licenses.
After the third founder of Wild Justice, Mark Avery, wrote a damning review of Curlew campaigner and conservation champion Mary Colwell's new book, she responded articulately encapsulating the mood of many who care about nature in this country.
“Mark you have trashed my whole book on one part of one chapter. It is a spiteful, narrow-minded review and championed by spiteful narrow-minded comments. I thought you were better than that and had a wider take, but you literally see the word grouse and can go no further. I said absolutely nothing different in this book than in Curlew Moon, but then you also gave that a poor review based on grouse. All I want is for wildlife to have a far, far better deal in this country. I deeply and passionately care about this planet and am doing my utmost to move things forward. I may not do it in the same way as you, but I am trying. I think dialogue and constantly increasing common ground is working. You don’t. That is fine, but why trash a whole book because you disagree? You have thousands of followers who hang off your every word. No wonder, just no wonder we are in the god awful mess.”
After the latest Wild Justice video it seems even the loyal readers of Tingay’s bromidic blog are turning on her.
Nick Kester, a former communications officer from The Hawk Board, wrote: “Sorry, but I did not find it funny. Lacked the subtlety so essential in satire. Too obvious from the start. Rather juvenile I thought.”
Other supporters described it all as ‘silly’ and ‘not a comedy show’.
The tragedy of course is the devastating impact on wildlife and nature recovery in this country that Wild Justice’s comedy show approach to conservation continues to have.