Dear John

Earlier this year, our undercover investigators visited a game bird farm in Suffolk, and found row upon row of pheasants and partridges, confined to cages, desperately trying to escape. The sight of dead birds littered the ground nearby. 

We filmed partridges, imprisoned in barren metal boxes, without any enrichment. The stress and anxiety that these birds must experience is unimaginable – and their trauma is visible by the way that they repeatedly fly up into their cage roofs, in a futile attempt to free themselves.

We have all experienced the heat of this summer, but it is horrific to think of being in a barren metal box in soaring temperatures, with no means of escape.

Our cameras also captured scenes of cramped cages, containing several female pheasants and one male. The females had ‘shrouds’ over their beaks – used by game bird farmers to stop the birds from attacking each other – but if anything these cruel contraptions make the birds more anxious. Many of the pheasants had painful looking bare skin from the loss of their feathers.

We are campaigning at political and public levels to ban these cages as part of our overall campaign to see an end to the killing of animals for so-called sport.

1. Sign our petition
2. Write to your MP calling for an end to the cages

Thank you,

Fiona
Campaign Manager