It’s that time of year again, when pheasants and red-legged partridges have been released into the countryside in their millions (approx 60 million of these non-native species, in fact), they’re then shot for a bit of a laugh and then some of them are simply dumped.
Unfortunately for the game shooting industry, this is an ongoing, criminal and widespread problem, much like illegal raptor persecution is, and it’s drawing even more attention to an industry already under intense pressure to clean up its act.
Previous examples include dumped gamebirds in Cheshire, Scottish borders (here), Norfolk (here), Perthshire (here), Berkshire (here), North York Moors National Park (here) and some more in North York Moors National Park (here) and even more in North Yorkshire (here), Co. Derry (here), West Yorkshire (here), and again in West Yorkshire (here), N Wales (here), mid-Wales (here), Leicestershire (here), Lincolnshire (here), Somerset (here), Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park (here), Suffolk (here) and Leicestershire again (here).
Yesterday this photograph of shot and dumped pheasants in a field near Oglet, Liverpool, was posted on social media by the Hunt Saboteurs:
This obscene behaviour will continue to receive attention on this blog for as long as the gamebird shooting industry demands licences to kill protected birds of prey for the purpose of ‘saving’ gamebirds.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Bag them up and send them to Botham. He will distribute them to those in need – BOGOF only mind you!
Or send them to Eusless who is happy to amend the definition of livestock to allow the killing of corvids to continue to support game shooting.
Just looked at the link to the Peak District incident of Pheasant dumping back in December 2020. On 21/11/20 I found a freshly dead dead Buzzard near Monyash, this time between Youlgreave and Middleton. Wrapped it up in plastic and took it home. It was then collected by the RSPB. More than a year later and I am still awaiting the result of the tests into what killed it. All I know is that “investigations are ongoing” from Natural England investigations unit. Apparently it was a fairly young, well-fed bird. I’m no expert but it was clutching grass in its talons like it died in pain. Back in 2020 I looked back at the local parish newsletters on the parish website. Seems like I’m not the first person to find dead pheasants in suspicious circumstances around there.
Born in Liverpool 57 yrs ago. Thought I knew its geography well. Never heard of Oglet, until now. Great a pity about the circumstances.
I’m sure I will be corrected if wrong, but I thought that dumping shot game was illegal. If I’m right, then there doesn’t seem to be much at Oglet other than one farm, Yew Tree farm, and a couple of houses. Bounded as it is by an airport on one side and the Mersey on the other, somebody was taking an awful big chance driving down a dead end lane to dump these in a field. Easy to pinpoint with Frodsham wind farm in the background.
Of course, if it was a local shoot there wouldn’t be many possibilities for the police to investigate. Can’t think the farmer would be too chuffed at the dumping!
Apologies in advance for my predictable, but I feel obligatory comments every time this issue comes up, TBH because it’s hardly ever mentioned when it should be at the very forefront. Those birds were almost certainly raised on feed produced by intensive agriculture at home and abroad – so land taken up for farming, with resulting soil erosion and being doused with chemicals just to produce birds to be shot for fun then dumped. Each and every bird should be seen as equivalent to a frozen chicken from Tesco or Asda that’s been chucked out of the car window on the way back from the supermarket. I’m pleased to say that I had a quick look at the report the RSPB produced in 2020 on the effects of game bird shooting and it appears there is a reference to soy meal being used to raise game birds and that having a potential role in rainforest destruction – I’ll have a closer look as soon as I get the chance, it’s going to need far more publicizing, but it’s a start.
Northern Game feeds which advertises itself as “the leading supplier of high quality game feeds in the North of England & Scotland” has the following paragraph proudly displayed on it’s home page.
“Currently our main supply is the high quality Provimi range manufactured by Cargill, North Yorkshire. The range of feeds are extremely high quality made with good inclusions of top grade fish meal, quality assured wheat and soya bean products. All the ranges are manufactured in four mills situated in Yorkshire.”
So not only will it presumably be GMO non organic Soya beans but the real eye opener for me was the fish meal. Bad enough the Salmon farming industry is raping the sea to produce feed for their fish, but for the same to be used to grow birds which are purely shot for fun and are then often dumped like so much fly-tipping is a total disgrace.
Thanks for this!!! Cargill is an absolutely notorious driver of conversion of rainforest to soya monoculture in the Amazon, they’re an enormous company – at one time the world’s largest private one I believe, but compared to one like Starbucks they have a very low public profile. I had absolutely no idea that fish meal was used as well, that’s a bit of a revelation! This is yet another issue that needs to be brought to the fore to justifiably hammer the shooting fraternity with, but it’s practically invisible on the public stage. So, beyond any reasonable doubt, UK gamebird shooting is helping to drive rainforest loss AND global over fishing as well as significant levels of intensive agriculture in the UK to produce feathered clay pigeons that become, as you say ‘fly tipping’. How many of the British public have any idea about this? I would be amazed if it’s as many as 1 in 10,000. I would imagine over its lifetime a pheasant actually receives more feed than a typical broiler chicken so comparison with a frozen one from Tesco being chucked still doesn’t do the level of waste justice.
According to the government website.
“If livestock dies on your farm, it must be collected, identified and transported from your farm without ‘undue delay’. This means as soon as is reasonably practical under the circumstances.
You must not:
burn or bury fallen stock on your farm
feed fallen stock to red kites or necrophagous birds (birds that feed on carcasses)
You must arrange for the animal to be collected by an approved transporter and taken for disposal to one of the following:
knacker
hunt kennel
maggot farm
incinerator
renderer
While waiting for your fallen stock to be collected, you must ensure that animals and birds can not access the carcass.”
The word “dies” simply means stops living -so I assume this will include game birds which have been reared as “livestock” but then shot for so called sporting purposes???
So if shooting estates are trying to claim their gamebirds are “livestock” then it would appear that they will also need to adhere to this guidance?
No doubt that just before being shot – game birds will metamorphose from “livestock” to wild birds, and then those that survive the days shooting will then miraculously re- metamorphose back into “livestock” , so any crow, rook, magpie straying over the estate can be shot under a GL!!
That is interesting about disposing of dead stock. I occasionally find dead sheep on grouse moors. I’ve always thought this was a good thing as it provides food for Ravens etc. ( I have seen this). Do grouse moors count as “farms” I wonder?
I suspect the dead sheep you have found on the moors, have died without the knowledge of the farmer. It is often the case sheep are put out to pasture on the moors, and only when farmers round them up later in the year is it found some have succumbed to illness or old age.
In these circumstances, it can be very difficult, if not almost impossible for farmers to locate where a sheep has died, and often by the time the animal is found, the state of decomposition is such that retrieval of the carcass is impossible.
If you do find a dead sheep on the moors, it could be worth having a search around the area to ensure no illegal traps or snares have been set, as the dead sheep may attract foxes. Also consider whether the carcass has been laced with poison- any dead wildlife in the immediate vicinity could be an indication of the use of poison. Be mindful not touch anything!
If you find something suspicious- obtain the precise location using What3words and report to the local police or RSPCA. Ideally take some photos.
And yet the odd sheep lost to avian predation pushes these poor farmers into destitution.
A good point Les. It reminds me of a thought which has passed through my mind several times regarding the compilation of a list of what might be called ‘Shooting – the downside factors’. There are the very obvious ones such as persecution of BOPs and the spreading of toxic metal around the countryside, but there are others of a more subtle nature such as you have raised here. For clarity, maybe two lists – for upland and lowland areas respectively. Not sure how it could be done, though.
The environmental consequences of food wastage are literally enormous and this really does come under it, I’m approaching various campaigning organisations to see if they’ll feel the same. There’s also the very serious issue that known non native, invasive species shrub species are being planted out – quite legally – to provide cover for pheasant. Many of our woods have had the wildlife choked out of them by what was planted as game cover in the past, a part of shooting’s ‘legacy’ they don’t like talking about, and the lessons haven’t been learned.
These new types dumpiing birds are causing a lot of bother , in my day all the birds went to the dealer and the money paid towards the beaters pay, now adays theres just far too many being shot, theres a big surplus and they have to pay 50p a brace for the dealer to take them, a daft situation if ever there was one.
Surely it would be far better to give the birds to a few folks, we get as many as we want free and theres many a good dinner had, ive eaten them all my life
To add to the tally about 10 dead Pheasants were found dumped near Kinghorn, Fife last week.