Another week and another pile of shot and dumped gamebirds.
Thanks to the blog reader who sent in this photo of a pile of dead, shot Pheasants he found yesterday, dumped on the road (B3081) running north of Wimbourne St Giles in Dorset.
If you look closely you’ll see what looks like green baler twine, indicative that these birds were probably shot on an organised shoot day, hung up (with the twine) and then distributed to shoot participants to take home, presumably to cook. But whoever was given these birds wasn’t interested in eating them – the ‘fun’ was all in the shooting.
Although given how many blood feathers are present in some of these young birds, their ability to fly would probably have been compromised before being blasted with a shotgun. It’s a strange idea of ‘fun’.
Regular blog readers will know that the dumping of shot gamebirds is a common and widespread illegal practice that has been going on for years, despite the repeated denials by the shooting industry. The disposal of animal by-products (including shot gamebirds) is supposedly regulated and the dumping of these carcasses is an offence.
Previous reports include dumped birds found in 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), even more in mid-Wales (here), more in Derbyshire (here), Gloucestershire (here) more in Cheshire (here), some in Cumbria (here), some more in the Scottish Borders (here) and again in Lincolnshire (here), in Nottinghamshire (here), even more in Lincolnshire (here) and even more in the Scottish Borders (here).
Unless someone was seen dumping these shot gamebirds there’s no way of knowing who did it or from which gamebird shoot they originated, and therefore there’ll be no consequences for the person responsible. There’s no requirement for shoot managers to fit identifying markers to their livestock, which would make them traceable, because gamebird ‘livestock’ absurdly changes legal status to ‘wildlife’ as soon as the birds are released from the rearing pens for shooting (see Wild Justice’s blog on Schrodinger’s Pheasant for details).
Earlier today I blogged about the ‘significantly elevated threat‘ of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and the compulsory housing orders now in place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in addition to increased biosecurity measures that everyone, including those who run gamebird shoots, are supposed to be undertaking to lessen the risk.
What’s the point, when irresponsible gamebird shooters keep dumping shot birds and leaving them to rot by the side of the road, putting wildlife at risk, especially birds of prey?
Raptor Persecution UK 
The degree of care that the perpetrator has for the environment is very clearly indicated by this act so it’s pretty unlikely that they will have used non-lead ammunition so the lead in these birds will be consumed by scavengers and enter the food chain.
In spite of the fact that over 60 million of these birds are released each year to be shot, as well as the environmental risks in dumping them, it makes me sad to see this, such a waste of their young lives, for nothing tangible
These poor defenceless young and beautiful birds. Just ban shooting period and do it immediately. Let their karma rain down on them all and soon
Its such a shameful thing to see killed for nothing and left to rot but this depicts the sort of xxxxx that do this have no regard for life the environment not to mention the bird flu on the increase.