Brand new investigation of three game farms in Wales

In April 2025, Animal Aid’s investigations team conducted site visits to three game bird breeding farms in Wales, uncovering deeply troubling welfare violations and regulatory failures, and, at one site, a biosecurity regulations breach.

From a response to a Parliamentary Question, we have learned that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has not conducted any inspections of game farms in Wales for the years 2023 and 2024, which is truly shocking; the compromised welfare of the birds through this lack of inspection was born out by our findings.

One of the sites that we visited uses the cruel and oppressive metal raised battery units to confine the parent breeding birds – cages which should have been abolished long ago.

Contrary to the view of a Countryside Alliance spokesperson, who stated that barren raised laying cages are not used by the farms that incarcerate pheasants and partridges for breeding purposes, the cages we filmed were entirely barren.

At the other two sites we visited, the breeding birds were held in floor pens, which are viewed as a ‘higher welfare’ option, yet at both farms the pens lacked any enrichment and the wet conditions meant that the poor birds were standing in mud, and subjected to the bad weather.

Both of those sites also had single male pheasants incarcerated in tiny pens, which had only a perch and no protection from the weather.

This exemplifies how the most basic welfare requirements as laid out in the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes are routinely disregarded, and it is the birds who ultimately suffer.

Disregard for animal and human health

At one location, we filmed a huge, putrid pile of bird carcasses, eggs and general rubbish in the open which could easily be accessed by other birds and animals. The rubbish pile contravenes regulations on ‘by-product’ disposal, and regulations on the prevention of avian influenza.

This, and the welfare issues above, have all been reported to the relevant authorities. We have learned to expect no meaningful action on our complaints, and our only option is to continue to campaign for a total ban on the breeding, importation, releasing and killing of birds for entertainment.