The organization asks people to sort through their wardrobes and donate any extra coats they don’t use anymore. 

Volunteers hang them along the bridge, which is frequently crossed by homeless pedestrians, and restock them as they are claimed from October through January. “Warm for Winter is a simple gesture from one human being to another … it allows people to access a warm jacket without the stigma,” a Facebook post says. 

 The jackets are not just for the homeless, but also those who can’t afford a new coat, the group says: ”There are people living in a accommodations who just can’t afford heat, along with substandard accommodations that don’t even have heating systems.” 

 Patrick Fryers, who started the Warm For Winter campaign, tells The Irish Post he hopes the movement will spread to other locations. 

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But some animal activists in the U.K. are taking the law into their own hands, using whatever means they can to intervene on behalf of the defenseless animals hunted down despite the law protecting them.

Moving footage shows the determination of a woman who couldn't stand the cruelty. The hunters sit astride horses in the fox hunting tradition, while their trained dogs do their dirty work. 

The hounds are zeroing in on a tiny fox when a woman sprints towards them. 

She starts screaming at the dogs to get them to stand back. She throws her own body on the fox and brings the shaking animal into her arms. As she runs away with the fox, the hunters shout at her from their horses: "Leave it!"

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Luckily, there appears to be little chance of this dystopian vision becoming reality anytime soon: The Tower maintains a population of at least seven ravens (the corvid equivalent of “heir plus a spare”), and last week, officials announced the birth of four healthy chicks—the first hatched at the London stronghold since 1989, when the Tower welcomed a baby named Ronald Raven. 

The Telegraph’s Jack Hardy notes that Tower staffers installed a new aviary last year in response to concerns over the declining number of legal raven breeders in the United Kingdom. Typically, Tower ravens are bred elsewhere and then brought to London. Of the seven corvids currently housed in the Tower, five were born in Somerset, one was born in Surrey, and one was born in South Wales. 

 “We decided that it would be a really good idea to see if we could actually breed ravens ourselves at the Tower of London to secure our future,” Tower Ravenmaster Chris Skaife explains in a video posted on Twitter. Huginn and Muninn, the newborn chicks’ parents, arrived at the Tower aviary toward the end of 2018 but were not expected to be settled in time for the 2019 mating season. Skaife, however, started to suspect the pair had successfully bred after spotting a huge nest that appeared suddenly overnight. On April 23, St. George’s Day, he saw the birds bringing food to the nest, and a few weeks later, he was finally able to approach and assess the scene for himself. According to a statement, the chicks eat at least once every two hours, feasting on a diet of quail, mice and rats procured by Skaife, prepared by their father Huginn, and passed along by their mother Muninn. 

All four are growing quickly, quadrupling in size from around 8 centimeters tall at birth to more than 30 centimeters last week. Although the baby ravens are beginning to develop their species’ characteristic black plumage, it will take another year or so for their beaks to become fully black. Come late summer, one of the four chicks, named George or Georgina in a nod to the day on which they hatched, will permanently join the seven ravens (not counting Huginn, Muninn and the newborns) currently in residence at the Tower. 

The remaining three, according to Metro's Kate Buck, will be placed under the care of a specialist breeder in Somerset. Overall, Tower ravens tend to live longer than those in the wild. According to Historic Royal Palaces, the charity tasked with overseeing the Tower and other national landmarks, one corvid lived from 1884 to 1928—an astounding 44 years. 

Today, the ravens enjoy a diet of fresh raw meat, a once-weekly egg treat and the occasional rabbit. In a press release, the ravenmaster—author of a 2018 autobiography detailing his singular occupation—concludes, “Having worked with the ravens here at the Tower for the last thirteen years and getting to know each of them, I feel like a proud father.”

Say hello to our new baby ravens at the Tower of London 👋 These four little chicks are the first to be born here in 30 years. Legend tells us that should the ravens ever leave, the Tower will fall. Now, our future is secured and Chris Skaife @ravenmaster1 is one happy Dad! pic.twitter.com/BirBqM1Oiw

— The Tower of London (@TowerOfLondon) May 17, 2019

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She and her friend Sita recently boarded a special elephant caravan and traveled over 1,200 miles, day and night, and through heavy rains, to the Elephant Conservation and Care Center run by Wildlife SOS in Mathura, India. Mia and Sita were escaping decades of exploitation at circuses. 

When they weren't performing, Mia and Sita were chained up and could never fully lie down to really rest. When Mia arrived at the sanctuary, she appeared to collapse with joy at finally breaking free of her chains. Recently, Mia was spotted blissfully napping the day away, a luxury that she hasn't enjoyed for decades. But she still popped her head up and flapped her ears for the camera as a videographer approached. She almost seemed to smile for the camera ... before plopping back down in the delicious dirt to continue her doze.

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