And so it continues….
Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs have posted the following on Twitter this morning:
There was also shocking footage shown on ITV News yesterday of how at least five hunts are breaching the regulations about the disposal of animal carcasses under a ‘Fallen Stock Service’ for farmers. Amongst the horror revealed in covert camera footage was the dumping of shot partridges. The locations were not given. The report is well worth reading and there’s an embedded video but be warned, it includes distressing images – HERE.
Earlier today, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA and pheasant shoot owner, the Rt Hon Lord Benyon, was speaking in the House of Lords about gamebird shooting and was asked about pheasant dumping. Benyon claimed to have no knowledge of it taking place! I’ll blog more about his jaw-dropping statements once the transcript is available but in the interim I have tweeted links to the following incidents of pheasant dumping that I’ve have been cataloguing on this site for a few years, including:
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), Leicestershire again (here), Liverpool (here), even more in North Wales (here) and most recently in Wales, again (here).
The evidence is clear, Lord Benyon, for those who choose to see.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I’m not a butcher and have never gutted a bird in my life, but to my inexperienced eye these Pheasants do not look gutted and all the edible bits removed as was the “excuse” by the last dumping in Wales. Anyone have a view on the condition of these birds????
[Ed: Hi Nick, a couple of people have commented about photos not uploading but I haven’t detected any issues at this end. Thanks for your offer of support!]
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This is my neck of the woods…hunts in the area expect drivers to line up on public roads waiting for the imbeciles taking part to stop chitchatting and move along…dont, as I did request that they get out of the way because you will receive threats in no uncertain terms. The police aren’t interested if you report this behaviour because you know…..tradition.
The same happens on one or two minor (but all the same ‘proper’ tarmac public) roads I can think of with grouse butts running parallel. There is at least one line where the road actually runs between (from memory) the third and the fourth butt in the line. Regardless of whatever the law actually says – it would be hard work to get the police / council road department interested in it anyway.
Speaking to a person today that has connections with a well know dundee/angus game dealer and he was saying they have stopped buying in pheasants as there is no market for them and there literally being buried in there thousands on estates throughout the area.
I think the concerns about contamination by lead shot are now coming to the fore
The guy has been at the company for a good few years and they did in the past process pheasants but yes that was one of his comments lead contamination was one of the factors they stopped.
The more that is exposed- the more it is very clear that some of those people who claim to be the custodians of our countryside, and claim to value traditional rural life are anything but.
The question has to be asked- why aren’t these people being prosecuted?
I can think of many farmers who work so hard to abide by all the rules and regulations- and then investigators find this sort of behaviour taking place by hunts who are claiming to offer a carcass disposal service.
There are parallels here with the criminals who charge householders money to dispose of waste, and then flytip that waste.
What is common to both the illegal fly tipping and this abuse of the regulations regarding dead animal disposal is the illegal activity involved.
But perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised that there is a link between criminal behaviour and hunting- it is something that the Hunt Sabs have been trying to tell us all for a long time!!
I wonder if the Countryside Alliance will come out and make a statement regarding this ITV news story???
Things are not going to improve, quite the reverse. These people are from the same stable as the British government with its field sports tradition, its war on all forms of regulation, whether enacted or proposed, and its impunity in the face of abuses far in excess of dumping pheasant carcases. The abuses listed here would be shocking in a functioning democracy. In Anglo Britain, and particularly in the context of the public health pandemic abuse they are chickenfeed, public health threat or no. A government like this is quite capable of cheerleading this behaviour with the help of its media, and they are probably doing that already. We are dealing with just the fringe of the much deeper failure of the British state, which has quite a way down still to go.
And badgers get blamed for spreading TB what a joke.
I would encourage everyone concerned about protecting wildlife to become a member of The Hunt Saboteurs. They are targeting all wildlife crime and the shooting industry is in their sights. They have produced an excellent leaflet on the shooting of game birds called, “In the line of fire”.
These don’t look like whole pheasants to me (lots of wings, feathers, one foot and one head) – this matters, as these remains may have been dumped by the consumer rather than the shoot. I’ve asked WHSabs 3 times to confirm whole or not – no clear reply. Also, it would go against the ‘wasted food’ argument.