Bird Shooting FAQ
Bird Shooting FAQs Why does Protect the Wild call bird shooting an industry? Why does Protect the Wild call bird shooting an industry? Learn More Is bird shooting ethical? Is bird shooting ethical? Learn More Is bird shooting a ‘sport’? Is bird shooting a ‘sport’? Learn More Why will Protect the Wild never be ‘neutral’ […]
Snares and the Shooting Industry
Snares and the Shooting Industry Think it’s just hunts that kill foxes? Meet the shooting industry… The estimated number of fox snares put out in England is between 62,823 and 188,283 depending on the month. Approximately 1.7 million animals are caught in snares across the UK every year. Most of these animals are killed by […]
RSPB Investigations Officer: Reflections on a poisoning
RSPB Investigations Officer: Reflections on a poisoning “Another issue that keeps rearing its head is the lack of any consequences for Stroud’s employers.” On 5 October 2022 gamekeeper Matthew Stroud was convicted of a long list of offences at Norwich Magistrates Court including killing protected birds – yet he escaped a prison sentence. Now Tom […]
End Shooting
End Bird Shooting Protect the Wild wants to end bird shooting Bird shooting is: Catastrophic for animals – not just for the millions of birds killed by ‘sportsmen’ each year of course but also for the mammals that are snared and trapped in huge numbers on shooting estates. Terrible for us – because of the […]
Goshawk
Facts about the Goshawk Scientific name: Accipiter gentilis Bird Family: Kites, hawks, and eagles UK conservation status: Green At a glance Very scarce in Britain, females are the size of Buzzards. Breeds in large numbers in some European cities where they prey on pigeons and squirrels. Still widely persecuted on shooting estates here in the […]
Common Curlew
Facts about the Eurasian Curlew Scientific name: Numenius arquata Bird Family: Sandpipers, snipes and phalaropes UK conservation status: Red At a glance Once very familiar and widespread but now lost to many sites. One of UK’s most rapidly declining breeding birds showing 48% decline from 1995-2015. To save the Curlew we need to rewet and […]
Grey Partridge
Facts about Grey Partridge Scientific name: Perdix perdix Bird Family: Pheasants and partridges UK conservation status: Red At a glance UK resident, long-term breeding population decline. Rapid population crashes over such large areas point clearly to large-scale rather than local problems. Despite Red-listing in 2021, Grey Partridge can still be legally shot in England, Scotland […]
Red Grouse
Facts about Red Grouse Scientific name: Lagopus lagopus Bird Family: Grouse UK conservation status: Green At a glance UK resident, living and breeding in the often harsh conditions of upland moorlands of Great Britain and Ireland Wild at all times, numbers are nevertheless maintained at artificially high levels by gamekeepers. Up to half a million […]
Highlow Estate Shooting Investigation
Highlow Estate Shoot Investigation Who cares? Not the shooting industry. The shooting industry is all about selling birds to shooters to use as live targets on ‘days out’. It supports a cruel hobby that masquerades as a ‘sport’. Shooting profits by rearing flocks of near-tame birds to kill, promising its clients huge ‘bags’ (the disrespectful […]
RSPB’s review of lowland ‘gamebird’ shooting: “Bleak picture”
Has the RSPB finally run out of patience with the shooting industry? The country’s largest bird charity speaks out – but in an oddly low-key way. Tied for over a century to a Constitution enshrined in 1904 which insists it should be ‘neutral’ on shooting, the RSPB (by far the most important and most effective […]
Birds still being released and shot despite Avian Flu crisis
Avian influenza Prevention Zone declared across Great Britain making it a legal requirement for all bird keepers to follow strict biosecurity measures. Chief veterinary officers from England, Scotland and Wales have declared an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) across Great Britain to prevent the disease spreading amongst poultry and captive birds in a belated attempt to control […]
Gamekeeper escapes jail after admitting intentionally killing birds of prey
Gamekeeper escapes jail after admitting intentionally killing birds of prey. Matthew Stroud, 46, of Weeting, appeared at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on 5th October 2022 and admitted to the intentional killing of six Common Buzzards and a single Northern Goshawk. Police found photos of the dead raptors, which he confessed later to killing, on his mobile […]
Half of world’s bird species in decline
One in eight bird species in danger of extinction warns State of the World’s Birds 2022 report Birdlife International, the global partnership of NGOs that works to conserve birds and their habitats, has released a follow-up to their 2018 State of Birds Report. In the latest report, State of the World’s Birds 2022, based on […]
Shocking footage released of pheasant shooting estate in Lancashire
Shocking footage of dead and dying birds filmed on shooting estate in Lancashire. In September 2022 investigators from the Hunt Investigation Team, in collaboration with Protect the Wild, captured undercover footage from pheasant pens at the Leighton Hall shooting estate in Carnforth, Lancashire. Seasoned investigators were shocked at what they found. Many young pheasants were […]
News
NEWS Breaking news on our work and issues affecting wildlife. We update our site regularly so check back here or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also follow us on our socials to keep up to date. Latest newsFoxShootingRaptor PersecutionBadgerDeerInvestigateCampaign Latest news Cat found nearly ‘cut in two’ after a snare wrapped around his stomach […]
Weasel facts
European Weasel Scientific name: Mustela nivalis At a glance Weasels are widespread throughout Britain and are probably our most numerous carnivore. They have virtually no legal protection and many are killed in traps by gamekeepers every year. Shooting probably ‘loses’ more pheasants every year to collisions with cars than they do to Weasels. One of […]
Rabbit facts
Facts about the European Rabbit Scientific name: Oryctolagus cuniculus At a glance Native to the Iberian Peninsula, rabbits were brought to the UK by Romans as pets and to eat. The arrival of myxomatosis in the UK in 1953 saw a staggering 99% death rate in rabbits. Rabbits are now so established in many ecosystems […]
Polecat facts
Facts about the European Polecat Scientific name: Mustela putorius At a glance A member of the mustelid family which includes Pine Marten, Weasel, Stoat, Badger, and Otter. Heavily persecuted, by 1915 the polecat had become extinct across much of Britain. Recovering population now increasingly meeting and interbreeding with closely-related feral Ferrets. A member of the […]
Fox facts
Facts about the Red Fox Scientific name: Vulpes vulpes At a glance The Red Fox has the largest natural distribution of any land mammal except human beings. The UK population is around 375,000, perhaps one-third are resident in our towns and cities. Thousands are snared every year to protect pheasants and grouse for shooting. One […]
Deer facts
Facts about Deer At a glance All six species of deer found in Britain have increased since the turn of the century. Deer have no natural predators in Britain – they have all been wiped out by ‘land managers’. Despite the Hunting Act 2004 deer are still being hunted and killed illegally. There are six […]
Cat facts
Facts about European Polecats Scientific name: Mustela putorius A member of the large mustelid family (which includes the Pine Marten, Weasels and Stoats, the Badger, and Otter) the European Polecat is one of the least-known UK mammals. A solitary animal, the polecat occupies a variety of habitats, from farmland to woodlands to coastal sand dunes, […]
Boar facts
Facts about the Wild Boar Scientific name: Sus scrofa At a glance Ancestor of the domestic pig. The wild boar was once widespread here but was wiped out by over-hunting by the 1300s. In the 1990s sightings of free-living boar became relatively common again. The Wild Boar (or Eurasian Wild Pig) is an omnivorous mammal […]
Beaver facts
Facts about the Eurasian Beaver Scientific name: Castor fiber At a glance Once widespread in the UK, Beavers were over-hunted and became extinct here in the 16th century. Reintroduction programmes are now underway to restore ‘nature’s engineer’ to our waterways. Licences to kill Beavers and remove their dams have been enthusiastically embraced. Large, covered in […]
Woodock shooting: MPs say Defra didn’t respond to government petition
Woodock shooting: MPs say Defra didn’t respond to government petition. Back in early July, the campaigning group Wild Justice (set up by Dr Mark Avery, Dr Ruth Tingay, and Chris Packham) launched a petition asking Defra (the government department responsible for the environment) to look at shortening the so-called’ season’ in which shooters are allowed […]
Undercover investigation exposes sick birds bred to be shot
Our latest undercover investigation exposes sick birds bred to be shot. The shooting industry profits by rearing flocks of near-tame birds to kill, promising its clients huge ‘bags’ (the disrespectful collective term they use rather than referring to individual birds) and charging them hundreds of pounds a day for the privilege of standing in a […]
Terrierwork, terriermen, and the grotesque world of fox hunting
Terrierwork, terriermen, and the grotesque world of fox hunting Schedule 1.2 of the Hunting Act (which bans hunting wild animals with hounds) permits the use of “dogs below ground to protect birds for shooting”. It’s sometimes known as the Gamekeeper Exemption. Its wording allows someone to put a terrier in, for example, a fox earth […]
Defra refusing Woodcock the protection they need
Defra and Woodcocks – government won’t protect Woodcock so we must The government recently responded to an online petition to ‘Limit the Shooting Season of Woodcock’ launched by Wild Justice (Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay, and Chris Packham). I’ve already blogged about this petition and my hesitancy to sign it but in case you don’t have […]
Revealed: widespread burning of peatlands despite government ban
As an avid hiker, I sometimes stumble across scorched earth in the middle of nowhere: heather moorland deliberately burnt by landowners for grouse shooting. And as an animal rights activist, I’m acutely aware of the way the shooting industry uses vast swathes of land for hunting and shooting. So new statistics about the extent of […]
Gamekeeper Archie Watson charged with raptor persecution
Archie Watson: yet another gamekeeper charged with raptor persecution. Yet another gamekeeper has been charged with being a prolific raptor serial killer. Archie James Watson from Manningford Bruce in Pewsey (Wiltshire) faces six charges under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and three firearms offences and will be appearing before Swindon Magistrates Court on Wednesday, May […]
