Why your voice matters
Every signature you give, every pledge you make, is more than just a name on a page – it’s a voice for the voiceless.
(c) georgelogan.co.uk
In the fight for animal welfare, collective action is vital. When you sign a petition or pledge, you’re not just expressing your personal beliefs—you’re adding weight to a movement that demands change. Whether we’re urging lawmakers to ban cruel practices, calling on companies to adopt ethical policies, or raising awareness of issues which threaten the conservation and welfare of species, your signature helps show that the public cares—and that change is not only essential, but supported.
Petitions and pledges also provide powerful statistics. They show decision-makers that animal welfare and conservation isn’t a fringe concern—it’s a widespread, urgent issue backed by thousands. In many campaigns, just a few thousand voices can influence policy reviews, corporate decisions, or trigger parliamentary debates.
OUR PETITIONS HAVE CREATED REAL CHANGE
Petitions have long been a part of our fight to keep wildlife in the wild. In 1989, our co-founder and Executive President Will Travers OBE personally drove a petition containing hundreds of thousands of signatures to a CITES meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the ban on the international commercial trade of elephant ivory was then secured. In 1992, a 1.9 million-signature petition fronted by Born Free’s Co-Founder, Bill Travers, and Founder Patron, Joanna Lumley helped ensure this vital ivory ban was upheld.
Your petition signatures provided vital support to our long-running campaign calling for the Government to end to the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in Great Britain, which finally came into force in 2020.
As part of years of campaign work, Born Free conducted a virtual hand-in of a petition in 2020, which contained close to a quarter of a million signatures calling on the authorities in South Africa to close down their cruel captive lion breeding industry once and for all. Thankfully, the South African government has since commenced plans to phase out this industry.
Alongside our other efforts to end the use of lead shot, a toxic metal which accumulates in and pollutes the countryside and poisons wildlife, we supported a petition which reached over 44,000 signatures. In July 2025, the UK government finally announced plans to ban lead shot.
BUT OUR FIGHT CONTINUES – ARE YOU WITH US?
(c) Aaron Gekoski
While progress has been made for many of our campaigns involving petitions, for others, the fight for change is still ongoing. When it comes to policy and behavioural change, the journey to reach these destinations may be long with ever-changing political, environmental and societal viewpoints. Change can take weeks, months and even years, however with your support we will not stop.
Born Free ensures your voice is heard by communicating the support received for its campaigns during any discussions on the topic when opportunities arise. Whether that be in written communications, media interviews or during stakeholder discussions, your support will be shared with those responsible for enacting change.
Your voice matters. Because without it, animals cannot speak for themselves. By standing up and adding your name, you help create a future where compassion leads policy, cruelty is no longer tolerated and wild animals are born free. Thank you for being part of this change.
TAKE ACTION WITH BORN FREE
Whether it’s fighting the commercial trade in and trafficking of wild animals, seeking an end to trophy hunting, or challenging the exploitation of wild animals in zoos and circuses, you can support our work and take action for wild animals.
TAKE ACTION FAQs
When you add your name to a Born Free petition or pledge, we’ll ask you to provide some details which may include your postal and email address. Sometimes, providing this information is optional, and you don’t need to fill in your details if you would prefer not to – it will be clear on the form which information fields are mandatory.
When you are taking an action, like sending an email to your local MP, we need to know your address so that we can use your geographical location to identify which MP you need to write to.
Whenever you sign a Born Free petition or complete one of our ‘take actions’ you can always opt out of receiving further communications from us by ticking the box, or clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ option, which is found at the bottom of every email we send you.
Born Free is committed to protecting the privacy and the lawful processing of your personal data.
Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we will only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Our procedures monitor retention periods very carefully. Periodic reviews will ensure that retention schedules are followed. At the end of the retention period, your data will either be deleted completely, put beyond use or anonymised. In some cases, personal data will be kept in perpetuity but will be anonymised.
Our data processing is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulation 2019 (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other data protection legislation that may be appropriate.
You can read our full Privacy Policy here.
Sometimes Born Free may share petitions which have been created by other organisations, or Government e-petitions. These organisations will have their own privacy and data use policies which should always be linked to on the petition. Unless it explicitly states otherwise, a petition hosted by an external organisation will not pass your details on to Born Free.
On Born Free’s petitions and actions, you will see a yes/no question asking if you are happy to receive future emails from Born Free. If you select ‘no’, you will only receive emails from Born Free confirming that you have signed the petition or action, and updates directly relating to that action.
If you say ‘yes’, then you will be added to Born Free’s mailing list, and will receive updates about Born Free’s wider work, and other ways you can get involved. These emails will always have an unsubscribe link in the footer, so you can remove yourself from our mailing list at any time.
We do our best to update supporters about how petitions and take actions are progressing. It is important to understand that sometimes creating real change can take time, and results are not always immediate. You can always email our Supporter Care team at: [email protected] if you would like an update on a Born Free issue you that have supported, and have not received an update.
It is important to note that sometimes, Born Free will share external petitions, ie petitions created via GOV.UK or other platforms, and they will have different communication protocols. For example, when you sign a GOV.UK petition, you may be notified when 10,000 signatures are reached, when petitions get a response from the government, and after 100,000 signatures are reached, when petitions are considered for debate in Parliament.
Remember, you can opt out of receiving updates at any time, be they Born Free updates or updates from a third party.
Most Born Free petitions can be signed by international supporters – they are all about showing the intended recipient how many people support the cause, and every voice matters.
Some UK-specific petitions which have been shared by Born Free but created by a third party (ie GOV.UK) may be restricted to UK residents only.
Actions which are aimed at writing to your local MP can only be completed by supporters with a UK address. From time to time, we may also be tackling issues which are specific to the devolved nations, in which case this will be made clear on the action.
You can only sign a Born Free petition once per email address, but if you have more than one email address (ie a work email and a personal email), there is nothing stopping you from signing a petition using both addresses!
If you have received a response from your MP, following a letter or email you sent via a Born Free ‘take action’ you can forward it to [email protected] – or if we have sent you an email asking you to write to your MP, we may have specified a different email address to forward responses to.
It’s always useful for our team to see MPs’ responses to our campaigns, and helps us to navigate the political landscape and bring about lasting legislative improvements.