Month: September 2026

The UK Government is poised to open a public consultation on the welfare implications of the mass breeding of gamebirds, according to an article published by The Guardian this afternoon (see here).

This consultation has been anticipated, after the Labour Government included it in its Animal Welfare Strategy which was published in December 2025 (see here).

What isn’t clear, to me anyway, is whether this consultation also includes evidence-gathering for the option of licensing gamebird shooting and releases, which was promised separately in the Government’s Land Use Framework for England, published in March this year (see here).

Today’s article in The Guardian jumps seamlessly between the two issues and gives the impression of a single consultation covering both issues, rather than two separate consultations.

I couldn’t find any notice of a consultation on Defra’s website, so I guess the announcement is imminent and we’ll find out the extent of it when it’s actually published.

I was invited to provide a comment for The Guardian‘s piece today. I told the journalist that yes, there is plenty of evidence documenting the failure of animal welfare considerations for the mass breeding and rearing of gamebirds and it is definitely worthy of attention for the benefit of those individual birds. However, I also pointed out that addressing those welfare concerns was a bit like treating the symptoms but not the cause.

Putting an end to the rearing and annual release in to the countryside of an estimated 60 million non-native game birds for shooting should be the government’s focus. If they stopped that, then the associated welfare issues, as well as the many environmental issues and wildlife crimes associated with the gamebird shooting industry would also be sorted.

The Guardian article can be read here.

UPDATE 4 September 2026: Defra confirms its Call for Evidence will encompass all aspects of gamebird rearing, release and shooting (here)

Update 5 September 2026: Defra’s Call for Evidence on all aspects of gamebird rearing, releasing and shooting is now open – this is your opportunity to be heard (here)

Today is the official opening day of the Red-legged Partridge (RLP) shooting season in England, Scotland and Wales.

An estimated 10 million RLPs are released into the countryside every year, for shooting. They join an estimated 50 million released Pheasants – although the shooting season for Pheasants doesn’t start until 1 October.

The precise number of these non-native Pheasants and RLPs released each year isn’t known – research published recently by Guy Shrubsole demonstrated that shooting estates in England are failing to declare millions of released birds, and research published earlier this year by Wild Justice demonstrated that some shoots are releasing birds unlawfully, under the radar of the authorities.

Someone asked me this morning whether there was any evidence that shoots were releasing fewer birds this year, as a consequence of last year’s Bird Flu outbreak.

Well, according to the shooting press, apparently the opposite is true, at least with regard to RLPs.

Three shooting publications are reporting that game dealers have sent a warning to shoot managers this year, saying that there is a ‘a glut’ of RLPs being released this year; so many in fact that the game dealing trade (the people who process and sell on the shot birds) are concerned that the number of RLPs “go beyond what the trade can handle“.

The estimated number of predicted RLP releases seems to originate from a ‘market briefing note’ recently issued by Guns on Pegs, an online market place for selling shoot days. I haven’t been able to find a copy of that note so can only rely on what the shooting press is saying about the content.

But Shooting Times, Sporting Gun and the Fieldsports Journal are all reporting on the story, with quotes from two prominent individuals from the game dealing industry:

Leon Challis-Davies of the game meat organisation Eat Wild said: “To put it bluntly, shoots have stocked more partridge than usual and there just isn’t the capacity to cater for the volumes we’re expecting unless we all get our act together soon“.

Tristan Kirk of Lincolnshire Game said: “I encourage every estate that supplies partridges to the food industry to speak to their preferred processors as soon as possible, with accurate information about the numbers expected and dates. This allows us to have a forecast for sales or storage requirements until a sale can be found. This is crucial and should be normal practice“.

There’s also commentary about the poor condition of some gamebirds received by dealers, attributed to ‘bad handling’ on the shoot, which means that those gamebirds cannot then be processed for human consumption.

It’s all quite interesting, given the game shooting industry’s mantra (Code of Good Shooting Practice) that:

“Shoot managers must ensure compliance with relevant game meat and food hygiene regulations“

and

“Shoot managers must ensure they have appropriate arrangements in place for the sale or consumption of the anticipated bag in advance of all shoot days“. [Emphasis is mine].

Stand by for piles of shot and dumped or fly-tipped RLPs across the UK this season….

Now, where’s that evidence-gathering exercise on gamebird release and shooting, promised by Defra?