Another shooting season is underway and that means incidents of dumped/fly-tipped gamebirds have also started again.
Here’s one from this month, with dead Woodpigeons and Red-legged Partridges dumped in a lay-by in Keyingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire (thanks to the blog reader who sent the screen grab from social media).
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/fly-tipped 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), in Cambridgeshire (here), in South Lanarkshire (here), in Inverness-shire (here) and in the Cairngorms National Park (here)
Award-winning comedian, writer and actor Lord Christian Brighty (‘The Mr Darcy of the Internet’), who recently made this brilliant spoof video about Pheasant shooting, has created another one, this time a short video specifically about the dumping of shot gamebirds. Press the arrow to play:
At the end of the video, viewers are urged once again to submit evidence to Defra’s Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting. It closes at one minute to midnight on Sunday 1st November 2026.
If you’ve ever found piles of shot and dumped gamebirds in lay-bys on lanes in your local area, or found them stuffed inside bin bags and dumped in the woods, or chucked in rivers, or tipped into giant pits on grouse moors, please send in your information to Defra’s Call for Evidence on the impacts of gamebird shooting. The consultation closes at one minute to midnight on Sunday 1st November 2026. You can find guidance about how to do it on Wild Justice’s website, here.
This has been going on for over 45 years to my knowledge. The dynamics are very simple. A large proportion of gamebird shooters have got no life history, of eating animals they have killed. In front of their mates, they make out they are taking them away to eat, and then they throw them away in the nearest pull in spot. Over 45 years ago, I was asked if I’d clean and prepare some pheasants by a guy I knew that ran a gunshop. He got invited on this pheasant shoot, and alway threw them away. He said he couldn’t eat something he’d prepared himself. However, he’d invited the owner of the shoot over for dinner, and he gave him some pheasant to prepare for the dinner. I can’t remember all the details, but if I remember rightly, he paid me handsomely for doing it. A very large proportion of game bird shooters, are from highly paid financial jobs etc. This isn’t a rumour. I used to live on a shooting estate over 30 years ago, and nearly all the syndicate members, worked in the City. A bunch of poseurs pretending to be country people.