Our weekly round-up of interesting and outlandish information, collected from the corners of the charity sector.

Wild-cat fight

Nothing gets a blue-blooded gent’s heart racing quite like hearing the words: ‘cat fight!’ Quite why that is remains, to this column at least, something of a mystery.

Anyway, while Diary has stumbled across a quite excellent cat fight, it’s not the sort that do occasionally erupt in the front bar of particularly grimy Wetherspoons in the wee hours of the morning.

No, this particular spat has broken out between two Scottish conservation charities: Wildcat Haven and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland – hitherto referred to by its decidedly catchy mnemonic RZSS - and the rights and wrongs of killing domestic feral cats.

To cut a long story short, the RZSS says it will allow its gamekeepers to shoot feral cats they trap in order, ironically it would seem to Diary, to protect Scotland’s native wildcats. Wildcat Haven however has decried this announcement as “barbaric and unnecessary”.

Dr Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser at WH, went so far as to publish an FOI request for a trapping licence made by RZSS to Scottish Natural Heritage, which he claims gives the RZSS licence to shoot captured feral cats. O’Donoghue says he is “deeply saddened” by the fact that Scottish Natural Heritage “has chosen to allow the RZSS to trap feral cats, only to shoot them in the face with a shotgun”.

This kitty's got claws!

He also makes the excellent point that, given that native wildcats and domestic feral cats look much the same (you know, ‘cat-like’) who’s to say that RZSS gamekeepers won’t be accidentally lighting up the very animals they’re trying to protect?

As opposed to shot-gunning cats in the face, WH has instead called for trapped feral cats to be neutered. The RZSS have swiped back however, saying that Wildcat Haven is using “underhand and distorting ploys to further its own agenda” and refuted the allegations that its gamekeepers will be walking around the highlands, shooting pussycats in the face with 12-gauge shotguns. RZSS’ chief executive says that trapped feral cats will instead be “humanely euthanized” by the organisation’s veterinary team.

Meooooow!

Given the choice between having one’s nethers hacked off, or being shot in the face, this column would - under great duress, mind – probably plump for the former. It’s a bit like being forced to choose between two big bowls of kitty-litter though, isn’t it?

To infinity and way, waaaaaay beyond!

To Wales now, and the victory of one man over 12 months’ worth of bureaucracy, red tape and, let’s be honest, a complete lack of imagination on behalf of the DLVA.

Buzz Lightyear, the absolute hero formerly known as Sam Stephens, formally changed his name by deed poll in April 2015 to help raise money for CLIC Sargeant. While Buzz’s fight to raise money for children with cancer has been going swimmingly, his ongoing battle for photographic ID has been somewhat tougher.

The DVLA said that, due to the moniker Buzz Lightyear being that of a ‘fictional character’, it wouldn't issue Buzz with a driving licence for fear of bringing itself “into disrepute”. Finally though, after a year of back and forth, the DVLA has relented and issued Mr Lightyear with his driving licence.

Well done, Buzz! And, to the DVLA, it seems to this column that it’s true that “there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere”... it sounded better when Tim Allen said it. 

Karma, right in the face

Finally, a guy in Belfast has been taken to hospital after the brick he threw at a charity’s head office window bounced back and smashed him in the face.

This is one of those stories that, no matter what this column tries, can’t really be bettered. So, we’ll just leave it there for you, dear readers, to enjoy.

By the way, can you guess the name of the charity whose window smashed in a guy’s face? The Public Initiative for Prevention of Suicide and Self Harm.

Sadly there's no recording of it. And anyway you, our thoughtful readers, don't approve of laughing at idiots. But if you did, you could watch a similar video here.