From field to fork

Iain Green, Director of Animal Aid, said: “All this cruelty and waste is just to enable wealthy shooters to use live birds as feathered targets.

“Shooting is about killing live animals for pleasure, not providing food for the table.”

Animal Aid have investigated the shooting industry for many years, Iain said: “We have filmed inside the vast industrial farms that imprison the breeding birds used to produce the next shooting season’s victims.

“Our website documents the appalling conditions that these poor birds have to endure, their confinement in metal cages makes them so desperate and stressed that they attack one another and injure themselves trying to escape.

“No bird wants to be caged and it speaks volumes that the shooting industry finds it acceptable to treat birds in this way.

Environment

Estates involved in the sport manage over 200 million hectares of land across the UK, an area roughly equivalent to 300 million football pitches.

The management of this countryside, includes controlled heather burning, predator control, planting of cover crops and woodland copse, which help to preserve vital habitats.

In fact, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has found that pheasant releasing can have “benign or positive” impacts on woodland ecosystems, including changes in vegetation structure and bird communities. 

Their research highlights that certain management practices for pheasants, such as reducing canopy cover, promote vegetation growth, creating favourable conditions for some woodland bird species and even enhancing biodiversity.

However, not everyone agrees with the environmental benefits of game bird shooting.

Conservationists argue that the release of millions of non-native birds each year disrupts local ecosystems and puts unnatural pressure on native species as they have to compete for resources.

A recent study revealed that the biomass of introduced pheasants in the UK exceeds that of all native wild bird species combined.

Additionally, there are concerns about the impact of lead shot due to its potential to poison wildfowl and contaminate soil and water ways.

The GWCT has addressed the issue by promoting soft steel shot as an alternative and addressing concerns about single-use plastic cartridges.

A spokesperson from the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Up to 61 million, non-native, pheasants and red-legged partridges are released into the British countryside every year, which presents a really big environmental problem.”

The animal welfare charity are “concerned about the vast number of animals being bred in factory farm conditions” and are opposed to the large scale game bird release “so people can simply shoot them for sport”.

The charity said: “One of the most damaging things associated with the shooting industry is what they’re doing for native wild life in terms of trapping and snaring.

“Any creatures deemed a threat to their stocks of birds are killed by gamekeepers.

“They often use snares, which catch and kill not just the intended target but any animal or household pet that is unfortunate enough to wander into the trap.

“These traps have been banned in Scotland and they were banned in Wales last year. 

“We are calling for them to be banned in England too .”

Harvey Algar said: “When we first get the pheasants they are small, so obviously it would be unfair if we put them all into a woodland with no protection.

“That is unethical.

“The birds don’t know how to roost yet, so we do take safety and security into our own hands, but we don’t take out the predators.”

He explained the use of low level electric fencing to deter foxes and flashing cones to stop tawny owls from swooping on their young pheasants.

Harvey said: “We are not removing wildlife from the area, we are just stopping the pheasants from being picked off every day.”