In July I published a photo of a vegetation-free mud pit, ridiculously over-stocked with semi-tame reared ducks that were being fed with sack loads of barley to keep them at the pond so that paying clients can turn up from 1st September and blast them to smithereens for a bit of a laugh (here).
I argued that the shooting of semi-tame ducks for ‘fun’ in the UK hasn’t attracted as much attention as pheasant and partridge shooting, probably due to the numbers (and thus environmental impact) involved (i.e. an estimated 60+ million non-native pheasants & partridges released annually in the UK compared with a vaguely estimated 3 million native mallards) but that it definitely deserves more scrutiny, especially in this avian-flu era.
Many thanks to Green Peer Natalie Bennett who read the blog and submitted a Parliamentary Question on this issue:
It was answered by DEFRA Minister (and gamebird shooter) Richard Benyon as follows:
What a surprise (not) to learn that DEFRA doesn’t have a clue how many ducks are reared and released for shooting, nor the conditions in which they live before being shot to pieces.
It doesn’t look like he has any plans to recommend a review, either.
Marvellous. There’s nothing quite like having a Minister with vested interests, is there?
Raptor Persecution UK 
Richard Benyon? we all know about him.
This is rural life
No it’s not.
It is not “rural life”, it is a sick collection of archaic pursuits that have no respect for life, the environment or the genuine interests of rural communities.
only to a tiny minority and most of those who pay to come a shoot these living targets are anything but rural, but then the morally bankrupt have always tried to play the “townie card”. It was never true and now it is just so over used that all it demonstrates is your vacuity.
I’ve lived in rural Lincolnshire all my life and I don’t go blasting any birds/animals to bits and nor do I agree with the “fun” of psychopaths?
If this is rural life, you can stick it!
I don’t quite understand Mr Benton’s response – if Defra has no data on how many ducks are released for shooting, then how can any meaningful risk assessment on how this may impact upon avian flu in both wild and kept birds be conducted?
Is there not some risk that a large numbers of ducks released in a small area could become a reservoir for avian flu?
Likewise, if no assessment has been made on how ducks reared for shooting actually live, then how can the Minister be sure that the legislation relating to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 isn’t being breached?
If I am reading his response correctly the Code of practice for the welfare of game birds reared for sporting purposes only seems to offer advice and not legally binding conditions?
Am I missing something?
Perhaps is it time that all aspects of the shooting industry were properly regulated, so that an apparent multi million pound industry is properly controlled so that those engaged in poor or illegal practices were held accountable?
But perhaps Mr Benyon doesn’t really want the authorities being granted the power to scrutinise something he has an interest in?
Defra have little or any idea of what is released to be shot generally. to my mind all releases should be registered and require an individual licence. Shooting in the UK despite what its adherents claim is almost regulation free.
Absolutely. I understand one of the governments targets set out in the Environment Bill was to halt the decline in nature and have new legally binding targets on species abundance for 2030. How are they going to achieve this, if they have no idea how many non native game bird are released into the countryside, in what densities and where, and how these non native birds are impacting on the ecosystems and native wildlife in the areas where they are released?
It seems the government are setting targets for the environment and climate change but then either fail to fully understand or fail to take meaningful action to ensure those targets will be achieved.
Apart from one or two individuals, one has to wonder whether those in government really have the intelligence and intellectual ability to actually manage the country? The fact that political leaders seem to shuffle their Ministers around the cabinet like a pack of cards, so that someone can change portfolios midway through a term in office might indicate that the country isn’t being managed by people who really understand what they are actually managing, or what the long term implications of their decisions might really mean?
I read a study a while ago which was done in Belgium. They studied areas where pheasants were released and also areas with no pheasants but the habitats were the same.
In the areas with pheasants there were no reptiles, despite them being suitable habitats, but in the areas with no pheasants the reptiles were abundant.
This study can probably be found through Google.
I think I was looking for info to do with importing pheasants into the UK from Europe
Indeed, Rachel – spot on! The paper is in French, but Mark Avery helpfully wrote a blog about it:
https://markavery.info/2022/08/23/les-faisans-et-les-squamates-evidence-from-belgium-that-pheasants-reduce-reptile-numbers/
It’s not a huge or totally authoritative study, but the results were very clear-cut. And, as Mark pointed out, the chances of ever performing a bigger study in this country to really nail the issue are zero, so it’s about the best evidence we have.
Thank you. It would be great to have more in-depth studies done. A village near me [where I used to live] was inundated with released pheasants every summer and they ate everyone’s veg and flowers so they gave up growing them. They also had a load of ducks tipped out onto the road one summer, which caused some chaos [not the ducks’ fault]
Well done to Natalie Bennett.
I had a visit to Blenheim Palace a couple of years ago and at the far end of one of the lakes was an enclosure with hundreds of mallard, now I know why!
https://www.iancoley.co.uk/sporting-agency/estates/blenheim-palace-shooting/
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust are big collaborators with Blenheim Palace:-(
If someone from Defra wants to come to the upper River Severn at Hampton loade to see not just hundreds of Mallards but thousands. They have caused so much damage to the river and its environment eating all the weed that supplies oxygen to the water and damage to the banks so when the flooding occurs parts will be washed away! Also they have eaten large areas of Barley fields adjacent to the river to. The ducks are in a terrible state.
Such dreadful impacts on the environment and on animal welfare, have only made me further convinced that those in Government, who pretend to be committed to maintaining the natural landscapes of the UK are cynically and cruelly disposed, when such excesses go unchallenged. It further reveals the loutish nature of those who claim that shooting is a “sport” to be commended. Much of my interest has centred on the hunting element of the USA, and its obsession with guns and hunting bows, and the serious impact they have had on the predatory species such as Wolves, Bears, Big Cats etc., that are facing a relentless clamour to be further trapped and shot, to increase Deer numbers for hunting and rancher interests. All over the world a struggle exists between the conservationist and the self-venerated hunter. From Iran to Turkey, only a few Leopards exist, with the Caucasian Tiger having been wiped out in the 1930’s, supposedly by order of Stalin. Then, we have the annual hecatomb of migrating birds crossing the Mediterranean to be met by the artillery of mcho male shooters.
We have also had the feeble and effete statement of Rees-Mogg, when a Minister of Something, that he felt the legislation to be enforced on the import of hunting trophies relating to Elephants, would spoil people’s pleasure! At another time, we had the use of ivory piano keys and knick-knacks, causing “constipation” of this sort. Has no one in the ranks of the Upper Classes, who are supposed to enforce what the humane public want regarding the welfare of other life forms, got a conscience that demands this debacle in over-stocked Duck ponds ceased?
The statutory “Code of Practice for the Welfare of Game Birds Reared for Sporting Purposes”, pointed to by Mr Benyon is well worth a read. It’s very short and considering that it is pretty much “it” i.e. it represents more or less the entirety of “regulation” in that sector, it is an absolute joke. I was mildly surprised to see that they had included a justification / excuse for the horrible practice of de-beaking young pheasants, so I have to wonder how widespread that practice still is.
This whole practice is simply obscene.
Who is more despicable:
The people who think this sort of shooting is fun
or the people who facilitate it for money?
And does anyone in DEFRA give a shit about the environment?
Clearly the Roundup Lady doesn’t appear to do so!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-45176295
And this is what the UK taxpayer pays for!
No wonder Defra has no clue: you only need to look at who heads the organisation.
All that’s been said about the unethical and barbaric breeding and killing of innocent sentient life is so true. But all the debate on whether a particular aspect of the breeding and killing of any animal is kind of academic because it all clearly goes against our laws that prohibits the causing of unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals that “All” so called blood sports cause!!!!!