THE PHEASANT INDUSTRY Factory farming meets shooting gallery

Found at Animal Aid

Briefing sheet: October 2003

THE PHEASANT INDUSTRY
Factory farming meets shooting gallery
This special briefing, issued to mark the start of the shooting season
on 1st October, dispels the myth surrounding pheasant shooting and
explains why Animal Aid continues the campaign against the pheasant
industry.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/wildlife/pheasants.htm

The image that Britain's pheasant shooters try to project is one of
tweedy Edwardian elegance; of responsible custodianship of the
countryside. But rather than 'harvesting' a natural resource,
pheasants are mass produced inside hatcheries and rearing sheds.

From the sheds, the birds are moved to fattening pens before being
released to serve as feathered targets for shooters who are often
charged a day-rate of more than £1,000. Every year in Britain, this is
the fate of some 35 million pheasants. The pro-'country sports'
newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, itself acknowledged (7 December 2002)
that the shooting of these birds is 'done largely or solely for
pleasure'.

Because of the enfeeblement that results from being reared in sheds,
many of the released pheasants die before they can be gunned down.
They perish from exposure, starvation, disease, predation, or under
the wheels of motor vehicles. And not all the birds who are shot are
actually eaten. According to Country Life magazine (1 February 2001),
some of the 'surplus' are buried in specially dug holes.

Even before they become target practice, the birds suffer serious
abuse. In an effort to eliminate aggression caused by the over-
crowded conditions in the rearing sheds and release pens, the
pheasants are subjected to painful restraints and mutilations. These
include beaks partially amputated with a red-hot blade and
blinker-like 'spectacles' clipped into the nostrils.

The excesses of the pheasant industry go further still. Animal Aid has
documented how these self-appointed guardians of the countryside
annually kill large numbers of wild birds and mammals with snares,
poison and body-crushing traps in predator control programmes.
Gamekeepers deliberately target foxes, stoats and weasels, because
these animals are attracted to the unnaturally large number of
semi-domesticated pheasants. But species ranging from badgers to cats
- even protected birds of prey like owls and kestrels - are caught and
killed.

As if this catalogue of cruelty wasn't bad enough, Animal Aid has
produced evidence that some in the industry are depriving the public
purse of business rates, VAT payments and game licence fees. This is
done, in part, by taking advantage of widespread confusion within
different government departments as to whether pheasant rearing and
shooting are agricultural or sporting activities. Local planning laws
are also open to exploitation, with large-scale shooting enterprises
being developed without planning permission.

And because of this official confusion about whether shooting is sport
or agriculture, not even the meagre animal protection measures that
are supposed to govern the production of poultry apply to the rearing
of pheasants. The birds' main form of 'protection' is no more than a
voluntary industry welfare code.

For in-depth reports, undercover video, and what you can do to help,
see our special pheasant index.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/wildlife/pheasants.htm





Animal Aid's new playing cards use sharp wit to reveal the sordid
reality of pheasant rearing and shooting.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/sport/cards.htm
. . . . . . . .





The facts expressed here belong to everybody,
the opinions to me.
The distinction is yours to draw...

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I'm a horny devil when riled.


pete who?

-=[ Grim Reaper ]=- 6/97

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I need a drink, feel all giddy...hic!