The cruelty of breeding game birds in tiny, cramped cages
Animal welfare campaigners from the League staged a thought-provoking stunt this month outside the Welsh parliament building in Cardiff, to highlight the cruelty associated with the tiny cages used by the shooting industry to breed game birds.
Six actors dressed in end shooting T-shirts were locked in cages assembled by the campaigners at the Senedd, to represent the tortuous conditions pheasants and partridges are kept in to produce the millions of birds that are being bred simply to be shot.
The event showed politicians quite how cramped and cruel the cages are when scaled up to human size, to help them truly understand the urgent need for these cages to be outlawed.
Actors in cages outside the Senedd show the tortuous conditions pheasants and partridges are kept in.
Changing hearts and minds
Some influential members of the Senedd were clearly impressed and joined the campaigners for photographs.
The League’s public affairs team is now liaising with political parties in Wales and asking them to include a commitment to ban cages for game birds in their manifestos for the Welsh Senedd election in 2026.
Wales is home to Bettws Hall, Europe’s largest game bird farm, where up to 90,000 birds are factory farmed and confined to inhumane cages to produce up to 800,000 eggs a week.
Take action
The League is calling on supporters to support our calls for the UK and Welsh government to ban the use of cages by the shooting industry.
You can take action by writing to your MP or Member of the Senedd here.
An actor highlights the misery inflicted on game birds by the shooting industry’s use of cramped, tiny cages.
Intelligence team uncovers the scale of game bird imports
Meanwhile, the League’s donor-funded intelligence team, staffed by former police officers and civilian analysts, has been uncovering the scale of cruelty linked to the shooting industry by importing game birds into the UK.
Freedom of information requests revealed that more than two million live birds were brought into the UK in 2023 and 2024 through ports such as Folkestone, Dover and Portsmouth, either through the Eurotunnel or on ferries.
At least 100,000 game birds were then transported as far north as Scotland and Cumbria, facing further journey times of six to eight hours after arriving into the UK.
Their fate after all this is to be confined to cages for breeding or to be released into the countryside simply to be shot for ‘sport’.
The League is now campaigning to end this cruelty.
Wildlife reserves protecting all creatures great and small
It’s always uplifting to hear about the conservation work taking place in our wildlife reserves stretching across hundreds of acres of countryside in Devon and Somerset and which are maintained by your generous donations.
These reserves provide sanctuary to the red deer and foxes still being ruthlessly chased by hunts across the West Country but they also provide a habitat for a wide range of species both big and small.
Last month saw our dedicated and experienced staff undertake the first hazel dormouse survey of the year with nesting boxes being checked across our reserves.
We’re delighted to say that these cute little creatures, despite huge declines elsewhere in the British countryside, are thriving on our land.
Dormice are good indicators of animal and plant diversity and this shows how life is flourishing on our wildlife reserves.
A dormouse in a nesting box on a League wildlife reserve
