The shooting industry factory farms around 60 million pheasants and partridges each year, just to shoot them out of the sky for ‘fun’. We’ve conducted close to 20 visits of ‘game bird’ farms and found cruelty and neglect at every single one.
This large 'game' farm consisted of around 800 barren cages. We were able to document waste and carcass disposal over several months, finding dead birds whose bodied had been scavenged and were crawling with maggots. Our findings were shared with authorities.
In 2026, our team found more than 500 barren, metal cages containing pairs of partridges. Footage was also taken of female pheasants, all of whom had been fitted with saddles, used to prevent injuries during mating, and masks that prevented the birds from looking forwards.
In early 2026, we returned to Bettws Hall and found more than fifty cages in a dirty, run down state. Horrifyingly, dead birds in varying degrees of decay and evidence of cannibalism were also discovered.
In 2025, we visited three ‘game bird’ breeding farms in Wales, uncovering deeply troubling welfare violations and regulatory failings. At all three sites, birds were confined, stressed and frequently injured.
In 2022, our team visited two industrial ‘game’ farms in Wales: Bettws Hall in Powys and Park Farm in Flintshire. Footage revealed rows upon rows of tiny, metal cages used to confine breeding birds.
In 2021, we visited a ‘game bird’ farm in Sussex and found birds confined to barren cages. A complaint to Trading Standards was met with assurance that there were no welfare issues at the farm. Later in 2021, we revisited the farm and discovered severe neglect. A long-running camera revealed that birds were not checked for 48 hours.
In 2020, we found incredibly stressed birds at an unnamed ‘game bird’ farm in Suffolk where cages were entirely barren and without enrichment – a breach of the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purpose.
We captured exclusive footage of hatching and live chicks being tossed into a high-speed grinder known as a ‘macerator’ at Heart of England Game Farm in Warwickshire. At a second farm, Bettws Hall in Wales, trays of eggs were loaded into the macerator without being checked for signs of life.
In 2019, we visited Bettws Hall in Powys and found four dead female pheasants in different cages, including two dead in one cage. Some of the dead birds appeared to have been cannibalised after death.
In 2017, we conducted three visits to this farm and found widespread feather loss, female birds with dressings covering their backs (likely injured during mating), a dead partridge, and cows grazing on a pile of litter that contained dead birds.
In 2015, we filmed pheasants and partridges used by the shooting industry for breeding. Footage showed birds confined for weeks in tiny metal boxes and units so barren they breach official welfare codes.
Support our campaign to ban shooting and speak up for the millions of birds who are shot every year - for fun. You'll also find a matching tote bag in the Animal Aid shop!
We need your help to reframe how animals are perceived by society. By ordering and sharing our free resources in your local community you'll be encouraging others to support animal freedom.
Our undercover footage catalogues the suffering and misery endured by birds abused by the shooting industry. Add your name to the petition to ban shooting.
