Following yesterday’s post about ‘in excess of 100 hundred pheasants’ found dumped in mid-Wales (here), blog reader Colin Penny (@colinpenny66) has alerted me to another mass gamebird dump this month, this time in Derbyshire.
118 shot pheasants were found dumped in a horse field at Shipley near Ilkeston on 27th December 2023 according to a post on a Facebook page called ‘Spotted Ilkeston Town’:
This horse field is located at the entrance of a housing estate called Shipley Lake, where more pheasants and at least one duck were found dumped in the middle of the road, presumably the result of a Boxing Day shoot:
Keep an eye out for piles of illegally dumped shot gamebirds along hedgerows, roads, laybys, local woodland, fields, rivers etc. It happens every year, despite the desperate claims of the shooting industry reps who pretend that, “Every bird shot in Britain goes in to the food chain” (Tim Bonner, Countryside Alliance).
If you have any photos of dumped gamebirds please send them in so they can be added to the ever-increasing dossier of widespread illegality, which so far has been reported from:
Cheshire (here), 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), Somerset again (here), Liverpool (here), even more in North Wales (here) even more in Wales, again (here), in Wiltshire (here) in Angus (here), in Somerset again (here), once again in North Yorkshire (here), yet again in West Yorkshire (here), yet again in mid-Wales (here) and even more in mid-Wales (here).
Raptor Persecution UK 
It’s a freak show. Something wrong with these people, they’re not right…
As a youth of 17 or so back in the 60’s, I acquired a ‘410 shotgun. I used it intermittently over two winters and then mothballed it for over 30 years before finally disposing of it. I freely submit I loved the hunting and actual shooting aspects but my reason for stopping was a simple one. Ultimately, I could not reconcile the shooting with the killing! I decided it was utterly immoral to continue such a pursuit simply because I enjoyed it. These sad photos of dumped Pheasant carcasses should make those “sportsmen” who contributed to the piles feel ashamed of such deliberate, wanton waste in the name of so- called sport. I do wonder if their consciences are are least pricked occasionally though for most I doubt it. So keep dumping your dead birds, chaps, as a shooting fraternity foot- shooting example, it will take some beating.
Bravely said.
I had a similar background, 410 when I was 17 and working on a farm. Enjoyed the sport and always ate what I shot. Sold my shotgun several years ago as I felt I could not justify the killing. This wanton destruction of reared birds then illegally dumped the carcasses is beyond my comprehension.
In an ideal world, all of the birds and beasts (including those killed as “vermin” to enable the game birds to live long enough to be shot) not used in the food chain should be shovelled up from wherever they rest i.e. stinkpits, old quarries, side of the roads, etc and returned to the person morally responsible for them. That is the paying “Gun” that shot them. “Here you go big-man / big-woman…[as a pile of rotting carcasses of fox, pheasants, stoat, buzzard is emptied out of bin bags onto their kitchen worktop]…you forgot these that you are responsible for – now make yourselves a casserole & eat every last morsel.
Well said Spaghnum, I agree with the morality, sentiment and logic of your words.
Thanks Jon, I just wish the smart young gents & ladies with disposable incomes who are adopting this (generally from a previous zero-background in shooting) as a lifestyle & leisure option like some people would with golf, would realise the scale of death, cruelty & waste associated with pretty much all “commercial shoots” and accept that the moral responsibility begins and ends with them, despite what amounts of money they have paid out to the estate/shoot.
I’ve been living on the outskirts of Bristol since 2016. It’s a semi rural area with views of the Severn & Chepstow. There’s plenty of wildlife in this area, deer, owls, buzzards, foxes & pheasants. On my travels I’ve come across disused feeding stations so I assume these birds were once bred for the sole purpose of shooting. I saw the same up north xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx. Only this morning I could hear a pheasant & a couple of years ago I came across mum & her chick’s. I can’t understand why anyone would want to kill these beautiful birds, xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
We certainly have a lot of people withe guns and people who hunt in the United States but I’ve never seen anything like this. I live in what is considered Appalachia and people do in fact eat what they shoot, sell it to restaurants or share with friends. I know one single fellow who says he can’t eat a whole deer and gives part to a charity food bank. Don’t tell me that there aren’t hungry people in GB who would turn down a pheasant. What a heartbreaking waste.
“Don’t tell me that there aren’t hungry people in GB who would turn down a pheasant.”
And poison them with lead?