Left to Starve in a Cage: The Shooting Industry’s Sickening Treatment of Wild Magpies
Over the past few months we have been publishing analysis of undercover footage obtained on so-called ‘game farms’ across England. We began by looking at the sheer scale of the shooting industry, and how the adult birds (not every bird, but far too many) are sometimes treated. We’ve also looked briefly at how enormous numbers […]
Thrown Away Alive: What our investigator found in a skip full of pheasant eggs
Over the past few months we have been publishing analysis of undercover footage obtained on so-called ‘game farms’ across England. We began by looking at the sheer scale of the shooting industry, and how the adult birds (not every bird, but far too many) are sometimes treated. We’ve also looked briefly at how enormous numbers […]
Which org wants to shoot Ring-necked Parakeets for ‘sport’ (that would be BASC)…
Yes, we’ve mocked up the header image, but back in March, BASC’s head of policy and campaigns urged members to flood a government consultation on amending the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 with calls for a long list of birds to be added to the so-called ‘quarry list’: a list of wild birds that can […]
Scotland’s Shooting Industry Wants Wildlife Killing to be UNESCO-Recognised
The shooting industry in Scotland just applied for UNESCO heritage status. Yes, UNESCO, that thing you associate with the wonders of the world, humanity’s greatest cultural and natural treasures. Not shooting, trapping and poisoning wildlife for fun. The British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) Scotland has submitted both wildfowling (hunting of wild ducks, geese, […]
How we’re going to end bird shooting
We make difficult demands on the people who support us. We ask you to watch footage that is hard to watch, to read accounts that are hard to read, and to sit with the knowledge of what is happening to birds in this country every single day. We don’t do that lightly, but we owe […]
“We’ll Try It, See What Happens”: Shocking ‘Treatment’ of Caged Pheasant
Heart of England is one of the UK’s largest breeders of birds for the gun. On its website, the company boasts that its birds are “produced without any shortcuts” and that it is “justly proud of the way it is produced.” What our undercover investigator filmed inside its sheds tells you exactly what “no shortcuts” […]
We paid a visit to the most vile shop in Scotland
Last week, we were travelling down from some campaigning work in Inverness, and we passed a shop called The House of Bruar. We decided to go in for a look, and what we found shocked us. The House of Bruar is a high-end department store in the Scottish highlands, and it looks innocent from the […]
Undercover footage aired by ITV exposes cruelty at the heart of the bird shooting industry
Shooting. They call it “sport”. Dress it in the language of tradition, countryside stewardship, and conservation. Wrap it in tweed and tie it with the reassuring ribbon of British heritage But what Protect the Wild’s investigators found behind the gates of a British farm tells a very different story – one the shooting industry has […]
King Charles’ new ‘Finding Harmony’ documentary is deeply hypocritical. Here’s why
‘Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision’ is a glossy vanity project aimed at establishing King Charles’ legacy as a supposed defender of the natural world. Charles’ puff-piece, which didn’t even make it onto the BBC, has been consigned to fester on billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Prime platform next to the dismal ‘documentary’ Melania, about Melania Trump. […]
North York Moors National Park – NOT a safe place for wildlife
As we enter another shooting ‘season’, Protect the Wild is publishing a series of articles about the key regions of the UK that attract both tourists who want to enjoy the wildlife and landscape, and hunters and shooters who have an altogether less healthy relationship with the countryside around them. The cubbing season began in […]
500 pheasants a day: billionaire’s Wiltshire shoot raises all sorts of questions
As both pro-shoot and pro-wildlife sides know, the pheasant shooting ‘season’ begins again in less than two weeks (see Protect the Wild’s Cruelty Timeline for details of ‘seasons’ for birds and mammals across the UK). Between October 1st and February 1st, around 50 million pheasants, ten million Red-legged Partridges, and around a million Mallards, almost […]
Media outrage over catapults but no condemnation of bird shooting
A 21-year old man in Sevenoaks, Kent has been arrested after videos surfaced of him apparently killing birds with a catapult. This is just the latest in a spate of arrests in Kent and London for animal cruelty with catapults and other makeshift weapons. Police seized 21 catapults during the arrest. The man has since […]
Dead ducks and geese: Lindisfarne, NE, and BASC
On 01 September we reported the shocking news that shooting lobbyists BASC (the British Association for Shooting and Conservation) were “raffling ducks and geese to be shot on National Nature Reserve”. In the post we stated that BASC were holding a raffle to “win two days’ guided wildfowling for you and a friend at Lindisfarne […]
Dartmoor: one of England’s most hunted and shot-over pieces of real estate.
As the cubbing and hunting ‘season’ starts again in earnest, we are also getting ever closer to the beginning of another few months of gunning down pheasants and partridges. Protect the Wild is looking at key regions of the UK that attract both tourists who want to enjoy the wildlife and landscape and hunters and […]
BASC raffling ducks and geese on National Nature Reserve
If anything sums up the disgraceful ‘normalisation’ of killing birds in England, it’s surely the ‘raffle’ that shooting lobbyists BASC (the British Association of Shooting and Conservation) are holding to “win two days’ guided wildfowling for you and a friend at Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve.” BASC notes in its sickening promotion that “Lindisfarne is renowned […]
Reclaim Our Moors – protest walk against grouse shooting
Timed to coincide with the start of the grouse-shooting season on the Inglorious 12th, an anti-grouse shooting protest walk will be taking place in the Peak District National Park this coming Sunday (10 August 2025). Organised by the campaign group Reclaim Our Moors (which has already featured on this Substack – see Moscar Moor: a […]
‘National Parks’ in name only
Long-term subscribers to the Protect the Wild and End Bird Shooting Substacks may have noticed that we often use lower-case and quotation marks when we write ‘national parks’. We do so because the UK’s parks are a long, long way from being the “protected area of land, recognized for its exceptional natural beauty, diverse wildlife, […]
Ban Grouse Shooting Debate June 2025
At almost exactly 16:30 on Monday 30 June, the first of a raft of Conservative politicians reading from their BASC briefing sheets, stood up to start a ‘debate’ about banning grouse shooting. The government had already responded to Wild Justice’s petition, saying to the 104,342 of us that had signed it that it “considers that […]
RSPB: Number of Hen Harriers killed or missing reaches new high
A new RSPB report – titled unambiguously Hen Harriers in the firing line – shows record numbers of Hen Harriers being illegally killed or going missing in suspicious circumstances over the past five years, and that the majority of the 102 incidents occurred on or near grouse moors. Hen Harriers are a rare, protected bird […]
Scotland: Green MSP calls for end to tax breaks for shooting estates
In a well-aimed TikTok video published just last week, Ross Greer, the Greens MSP for Western Scotland, has called for an end to tax breaks for wealthy shooting estate owners, saying it’s time “they sold their estates to local communities who could use them for the good of people and the planet.” The video points […]
The Star: Duke of Rutland urged to sell ‘trashed’ grouse moor ‘to people of Sheffield’
“Conservation campaigners are set to bid for a “trashed” grouse moor near Sheffield to “restore it to its former glory.” So starts an article in Sheffield’s The Star, a local paper which Wikipedia says has a very respectable total average issue readership of 105,498. Titled “Sheffield moors: Duke of Rutland urged to sell ‘trashed’ grouse […]
Animal Aid report: Killing Our Countryside
“I don’t believe that you can profess to love nature, the environment or our wildlife and support the shooting of huge numbers of non-native pheasants & partridges, known to some as ‘Gamebirds’.” That’s Chris Packham’s opening paragraph for a Foreword to Animal Aid’s latest report into the shooting industry. Titled Killing Our Countryside, it looks […]
Killing Pheasants: King Charles ‘livid’ as royal tradition faces axe
To quote a breathless report in ‘Hello!’, the lightweight glossy for the many people who like to peek from the sidelines at the wealthy, “King Charles is reportedly ‘devastated’ following news that a key royal family tradition could soon be scrapped.” What might that ‘key’ tradition be? Distributing alms? Thanking those around him for ensuring […]
Lyme Disease bacteria “2.5 times more common in ticks in pheasant-release areas”.
The bird shooting industry is responsible for a huge amount of harm. For example it sells vast numbers of birds to be shot dead, traps and kills native predators like foxes and stoats on a huge scale to ‘protect’ its birds, and it is almost entirely responsible for the scourge of raptor persecution. Now various […]
Open consultation: Heather and grass burning in England
In 1984 a Royal Commission on environmental pollution recommended a ban on straw burning to come into force within five years. In June 1993 a new law, the Crop Residues (Burning) Regulations 1993, took effect in England and Wales. The law prohibited the burning of various crop residues – straw or stubble remaining on the […]
Sabs disrupt a hare shoot on Banham Zoo’s land
A joint effort by sabs from Norwich Hunt Saboteurs (NHS), South Norfolk Hunt Saboteurs (SNHS) and Norfolk/Suffolk Hunt Saboteurs (NSHS) was able to drastically limit the numbers killed in a hare shoot at Banham Zoo on 15 February. Meanwhile, the Zoological Society of East Anglia and Banham Zoo have confirmed that they did not give […]
Bird shooting ends on huge Scottish estate after takeover by conservation company
Bird killing in Britain is an incredibly normalised affair. This is evident in the fact that of all the issues Protect the Wild campaigns on, shooting appears to be the only one that the Labour government plans to do nothing about. Recently, however, blasting birds out of the sky became just that little bit less […]
Nothing glorious about the ‘Inglorious 12th’
The 12th of August (the ‘Inglorious 12th’) marks the start of a key ‘season’ for the shooting industry. Over the next 121 days that industry will aim to sell hundreds of thousands of Red Grouse to shooters to kill.
The Secret Monitor: Linhope Estate, Northumberland
Damaging stories from inside hunting and shooting have been circulating for years. Both industries present a public face that aims to convince politicians and the public alike that everything they do is lawful or ‘sustainable’. The truth is very different, and much of what takes place is out sight. Supporters, clients and even the police […]
The Secret Monitor: Endsleigh Shoot, Devon
Damaging stories from inside hunting, shooting, and the badger cull have been circulating for years. Everything from breaking the law to assaults or harassment of monitors and the public while a police force seems happy to ‘look the other way’. But there is always someone watching, always someone listening. The Secret Monitor. In this post […]
Yorkshire Dales: new report proves it’s a raptor persecution hot spot
The Yorkshire Dales Bird of Prey ‘Partnership’ (YDBPP) recently published a ‘Bird of Prey Evidence Report’ which supposedly documents the status of raptors in the ‘national park’ and provides details of confirmed illegal persecution between 2022-2023. England’s ‘national parks’ are notorious persecution hotspots, so any truly independent analysis should slam the management of the grouse […]
Smoke from burning grouse moors choke Sheffield
“This is the unspeakable face of driven grouse shooting saying ‘F**k the environment, public health, wildlife and you’. Underpinned by the criminal persecution of raptors and a cause of poor water quality and flooding this despicable industry needs to end. End of. “ The above is Chris Packham’s entirely understandable response on Twitter to the […]
The vile Pheasant shooting ‘season’ has started
With barely a press release or salivating media article, the pheasant shooting ‘season’ has started again in the UK. Over the next few months (until 1st of February) the countryside will echo with unwanted and upsetting reminders that birds are dying in vast numbers. It’s opened in marked contrast to the flurry of vapid puff […]
Scotland: Avian Flu confirmed in pheasants
On August 11th, the day before the ‘Inglorious 12th’ and the start of grouse shooting, we reported that a case of highly-infectious Avian Flu had been detected in a Red Grouse. Given how Red Grouse are bred to create a ‘surplus’ for shooting (in other words, bred at far denser population levels than would occur […]
JAILED: Twin brothers who left a charity cyclist to die
Twin brothers who left a charity cyclist to die on a remote Highland roadside after hitting him with their pick-up truck before hiding his body in a stink pit (a pit where gamekeepers dump animal carcasses) have been jailed for a total of 17 years and three months. As we reported earlier this month (see […]
THREE more Hen Harriers ‘disappear’ on grouse moors
The RSPB has posted a press release today which describes how THREE more Hen Harriers (one of the UK’s most persecuted birds of prey) have ‘vanished’ on grouse moors in northern England. All three of them have been killed within days of the ‘Inglorious 12th’, the start of the 121-day blood-soaked season the industry uses […]
Avian Flu confirmed in a Red Grouse
The Animal and Plant Health Agency has updated its spreadsheet “Avian Flu in wild birds: 2023‘ to include the news that surely no one wanted to hear: a case of Avian Flu in a Red Grouse. The details are – to say the least – scant. All that is known is that a Red Grouse […]
Hen Harrier ‘brood meddling’ slammed by Wild Justice
The campaign group Wild Justice (run by Dr Mark Avery, a former Director of Conservation at the RSPB, Dr Ruth Tingay, who set up and runs the highly-influential Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) blog, and Chris Packham, the most popular conservationist in the whole of the UK) has just published Meddling on the Moors, a new […]
Have Your Say: Government Firearms Licencing Consultation
The Home Office is seeking views on recommendations for changes to the legislation on firearms licensing, possible changes to the system of referees, and changes in other areas of firearm licensing. The online consultation, which consists of 20 ‘Yes/No’ questions and a ‘personal details’ section takes just a few minutes to complete. It is “open […]
OPINION: The REALITY behind the ‘Glorious 12th’ – traps, snares and wildlife crime
The only ‘predators’ tolerated on grouse moors are the humans who pay to kill Red Grouse, not eat them to survive. Which means that cruel and indiscriminate trapping and snaring and the illegal killing of birds of prey is carried out on a vast scale all year round.
Defra cosies up to grouse shooting industry
Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), the government department “responsible for improving and protecting the environment”, has announced the appointment of a grouse moor owner to what it describes as a ‘key role’. Heather Hancock (pictured above), a former Food Standards Agency chair and former Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park […]
‘Moor’ bad news for grouse shooting in run up to Inglorious 12th
As we reported on July 22nd, United Utilities (UU), the largest corporate landowner in England, announced its decision to no longer renew grouse shooting leases on its moorland. The last of those leases will end in 2027, after which time UU (unless they bow to pressure from the shooting industry) will be out of the […]
White-tailed Eagle: first chick born in England since 1780
In a remarkable triumph of forward-thinking conservation and persistence, a White-tailed Eagle chick has hatched in England for the first time in more than 240 years. The location of the nest is being kept secret. Once widespread across Great Britain the huge birds of prey were widely persecuted. The last known English pair bred on […]
Heads-up shooting industry: Avian Flu is still killing wild birds
Just last week we posted an article (‘World’s tiniest violin plays for shooting industry‘) about a puff piece for the shooting industry published by the Daily Telegraph. In our post we pointed out that shooting lobbyists were arguing that the massive releases of non-native birds to be shot should be allowed to go ahead partly […]
White-tailed Eagles poisoned in Northern Ireland
A reward of £5,000 has been offered for information following the poisoning of two White-tailed Eagles in Co Antrim. The birds were found on Glenwherry Hillfarm on May 15th and a post-mortem examination revealed both birds had ingested the insecticide bendiocarb. Conservationists monitoring one of the birds, which was fitted with a satellite tag, became […]
World’s tiniest violin plays for shooting industry
Last week Yahoo News reposted a Daily Telegraph puff piece for the shooting industry which ran with the headline, “Gamekeepers face ruin after last-minute change to licences.” Lamenting a normally supine government for actually (finally) recognising the terrible threat of Avian Flu to wild bird populations and that protected areas ought to be – you […]
Gamekeeper Francis Addison convicted in dead goshawks investigation
On the 29th of June, Francis Addison (72) a part-time gamekeeper of South Park, Weeting, pleaded guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ court to NINETEEN charges in connection with a multi-agency raptor persecution investigation led by Suffolk Police, including the possession of five shot Goshawks. As Protect the Wild reported back in January this year, the bodies […]
Short-eared Owl shot and killed on Peak District grouse moor
The RSPB has released news of the shooting of a Short-eared Owl on Broomhead Estate, a notorious grouse moor in the Peak District National Park. The incident took place last summer but wasn’t publicised until police investigations had concluded. The shooting was witnessed and recorded on a mobile phone by an individual birding on the […]
RSPB: The Economics of Driven Grouse Shooting Report
The RSPB (the “UK’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home and secure a healthy environment for wildlife’) recently published a report called ‘Driven Grouse Shooting – Assessing the economic and social impacts of future options for grouse moor management‘ Or did they? Curiously, this detailed and over 100-pages long report […]
Avian Flu: RSPB calls for ban on bird releases by shooting industry
“To help limit the catastrophic spread of Avian Influenza, the RSPB is calling for an immediate moratorium on the release of captive-bred gamebirds and Mallards for shooting in the UK this year. The call is for the UK and devolved governments and the shooting industry to take a precautionary approach to limit the spread of […]
Hen Harriers: Illegal killing major cause of death, says RSPB
As everyone but the shooting industry acknowledges, illegal killing IS the main cause of death in Hen Harriers aged between one and two years, and a major cause of death in birds under one year, according to a new paper, published in the journal Biological Conservation, and led by the RSPB. According to a press […]
Protectors of the Wild – putting eyes in the field
Have you ever wondered what UK law says about hunting, shooting, collecting bird eggs, or about foxes, badgers, and bats? About operating drones, using airguns, or driving quad bikes legally? What the Hunting Act 2004 says, or whether the snare or spring trap you’ve just found is being used within the law or not? Us […]