Seven sacks of dead Pheasants have been dumped by the side of the road at two locations (3km apart) near Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire earlier this month (many thanks to the blog reader who sent in photos and location details).
At the first location (on the Draffan Road, grid ref NS788448), two sacks were found. One was a black bin liner and the other, rather tellingly, was an orange-coloured ‘working dog’ feed sack.
Five black bin liners full of dead Pheasants were found at the second location just a few days later (Candermill Road, grid ref NS771472).
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), even more in the Scottish Borders (here), in Dorset (here) and in Cambridgeshire (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).
Due to the ongoing concern about Avian Influenza, there’s currently an Avian Influenza Protection Zone (AIPZ) covering the whole of Scotland, with mandatory biosecurity measures in place for everyone, including those who run gamebird shoots. I’m pretty sure that dumping sackfuls of dead (presumably shot) Pheasants will be a breach of those conditions.
Raptor Persecution UK 
If those bags had been collected and fingerprinted, there would possibly have been an already registered fingerprint on them….Even better, that registered fingerprint might be from the local shoot.
Having opened up the discourse, maybe permission might have been granted for a quick search round the outbuildings for poisons, snares etc.
Even if fingerprints had been found, that wouldn’t be sufficient evidence to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, who had dumped the sacks.
For example, a person could claim they’d legitimately put the carcasses in the bags, ready for collection by an approved animal waste disposal company, and someone else could have moved them from where the sacks had been left.
Or, they could claim they’d found the sacks by the road, touched/opened them to determine what was inside, and left them in situ before leaving the scene, intending to notify the police / local council.
Etc etc.
Inconsiderate, thoughtless, disgusting but that’s them.They could have had the decency to tip them out the bags. 1. Aid decomposition – exposed to them elements & some would go into the ground. (unless someone reports them to the council & they are removed but i don’t know if that happens, i don’t know if council only remove / collect roadkill) (They may remove them being in bags? – fly tipping) 2. Benefit scavenging / scavengers, (That’s as long as they didn’t die from bird flu!) I’m sure foxes would rip into the bags, birds may not. 3. Less littering. – Scum. Reminds me of people that pick up dog 🐕 muck, tie it in a bag then leave it on the ground – WHY???
“2. Benefit scavenging / scavengers,”
Scavenging shot game is seriously bad for carrion eaters because of the lead accidentally ingested:-(
Sorry! Keith, guess I stupidly & inconsiderately to the animals failed to think of that – and of course they were more likely than not shot with lead. (I appreciate getting a telling)
By my comment I didn’t mean I was ok with ‘game’ birds being dumped Not in bags, sick waste of life / bio hazard / probably distressing left for the RPUK reader to have to find.
Superbperfectly… fair thought about fingerprints on bags but to add to Dr Ruth’s good points to quell that, the process of sourcing / retrieving fingerprints on plastic bags is beyond the budget of environmental crime (namely fly tipping in this case or maybe breach of animal by-product regulations) they have to evaporate superglue onto the bag in a chamber.
(auto spell must’ve put ‘them’ elements instead of ‘the’ elements in my comment)
Send ’em to the posh London restaurant that’s hosting BASC “Eat Game Awards” in March. They’ll work there culinary magic…
Appropriate in my book, as BASC has been the lobbying vehicle that perhaps has done the most to “keep the political road clear” to allow reared game shooting businesses to expanded like boom time Wild West – using a model based on income being for the Bag (and we’ll view what we can / we can’t(!) get for the corpses as a minor secondary issue.)