The Animal Protection Agency is committed to keeping your personal information safe. We value your support and respect your privacy.
If you have any questions or would like to change your details, please get in touch.
By submitting any information us to, either via our website or otherwise, you are agreeing to the terms of this privacy policy.
The Animal Protection Agency comprises the following two organisations:
The Animal Protection Agency is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that conducts investigations and runs evidence-based campaigns to end the trade in wild animals as pets. We also work to safeguard the welfare of those animals already in trade. Registered company no: 5180872.
The Animal Protection Agency Foundation is a charity that carries out or commissions research into issues related to the trade in wild animals as pets and conducts awareness-raising programmes on those issues. Registered company no: 6371987, registered charity no: 1123569.
All references to ‘we’ and ‘us’ apply to both of the above organisations.
We may collect personal information about you when you:
Ask about our activities
Subscribe to receive updates
Donate or buy goods
Become involved a campaign
Volunteer for us
Apply for a job with us
This can include a record of your name, postal and email addresses and any optional information you have provided such as your phone number or information regarding whether you are a taxpayer to help us to claim gift aid. We also keep a record of donations, subscriptions and any goods orders that you make. We do not usually collect sensitive personal information about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so and we have the supporter’s consent to do so.
If you apply to volunteer or work with us, we will hold the personal information you provide in order to process your application. We will only hold your personal information for the purposes of that application and for no longer than is necessary. As part of the volunteer/job application process we may need to disclose your information to a third party in order to seek a reference or obtain disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If you express an interest in volunteering for us, we may hold and process your personal information so that we can contact you about future volunteering opportunities.
If you take part in our online campaigns, we will record which petitions and actions you have signed. This is so that we can tailor our communications specifically to you. We do not hold personal information about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so.
We may also collect and process personal information, including from publicly available sources, for law enforcement purposes.
Financial details: If you provide us with your card details to make a donation or buy goods, these will be used in order to process the payment but your card details are never stored on our database.
Postal address: If you have given us your postal address, you will receive no more than 8 updates from us throughout the year. If you would prefer not to receive any postal mail from us, you can let us know by emailing: info@apa.org.uk or telephoning: 01273 674253.
The money we raise through postal appeals is vital for allowing us to continue our work to end the trade in wild animals as pets. We receive no state-funding and rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters.
We may write to you to respond to any queries you have raised with us, to process your subscription or to thank you for a donation. We will also use your address to send you any information, campaign materials or goods you have requested.
Email address: If you have signed up to receive email updates, we will regularly report on our campaign progress - no more than once monthly - and infrequently send action alerts (usually no more than once per week). We may also use your email address to respond to any queries you have raised with us, since this is more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly than responding by post.
Telephone numbers: If you have given us your telephone number, we may use it to answer any queries you have raised with us. We may also use it to ask if you have a new address, if a mailing is returned to us saying that you have moved. We may occasionally use it to thank you for a donation, or to ask if you would like to renew your support for the Animal Protection Agency if we haven’t heard from you in a while. In exceptional circumstances, we may telephone you to ask for urgent, non-financial help but this would be very rare (e.g. if someone contacted us about an animal-related issue in your area).
We may also telephone you if we have a query about your goods order, e.g. if we need more information about the product you’d like, to inform you of an unavailable item or if the payment details are incomplete (e.g. card expiry date is missing).
Details of past donations: We will use these records to make sure that the correspondence you receive from us is appropriate for you. For example, if you have previously donated more than £500, we may invite you to special events for major donors. We will also use these records to determine who might be interested in other types of giving, such as leaving a legacy to APA. If you would prefer not to be included in this process, you can let us know by emailing info@apa.org.uk or telephoning 01273 674253.
If you have given us your contact details then these will be automatically shared with the Animal Protection Agency Foundation, which works in association with APA, sharing the same office space and staff, and adhering to the same data protection policies.
We never sell or rent your information to any other companies or organisations, or arrange to provide our supporters’ details in exchange for theirs.
When you are using our secure online donation pages or ordering goods from our secure online shop, your donation is processed by third party payment processors (WorldPay or PayPal), who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.
If you have signed an online petition, letter or pledge, the details you have filled in will be sent to the recipient. For example, if you have signed a petition to asking the Environment Minister to change a policy, your details will be sent to the Environment Minister.
We may disclose your personal/sensitive information when required to do so by law e.g. to HMRC for tax purposes or to the police or local authority for the prevention or detection of crime.
Yes, of course. If you would like to see a copy of the data we hold about you, please let us know. We may charge a statutory fee of £10 to provide this information to you. We may also require proof of identity of the person making the request. From May 2018 we will be legally obliged to answer your request within a month but we will aim to do so much sooner.
