Dead birds filmed being thrown into a shaft

[Speleofish]

Replying to Boy Engineer. I agree the wholesale dumping of food dwarfs the dumping of game birds and is reprehensible. However, the percentage of game birds sent straight to 'landfill' is unforgiveable.

I live in an area surrounded by commercial shoots. Pre Covid one would pay ?30-35 per bird on a shoot (probably much more in the home counties). I can buy pheasant in my local butcher for ?1 per brace (ie 50p per bird). prepared (ready-to-cook) pheasant breasts are as cheap as battery chicken. Even at such a low price, in an economically disadvantaged part of the country, they don't sell many (and I don't think many people are worried about lead content).

I struggle to understand the economics, and struggle even more to justify them.

 

[2xw]

One thing that puzzles me slightly is the outcry (justified) over dumping of shot game, but indifference towards the (arguably) more important subject of food waste in general. As a society (and again a generalisation) we largely ignore the enormous waste of food resources, particularly upstream of our personal consumption.

(And apologies for all the parentheses)

Indifference where? You might be confusing what we as a society think with what the tabloids are willing to write about. Food waste is being steadily reduced, if you want to go bin raiding you have to go rural now cos it all gets hoovered up in the cities

 

[Boy Engineer]

Who said I was indifferent. [emoji6]

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Certainly not me 😀.

 

[Boy Engineer]

One thing that puzzles me slightly is the outcry (justified) over dumping of shot game, but indifference towards the (arguably) more important subject of food waste in general. As a society (and again a generalisation) we largely ignore the enormous waste of food resources, particularly upstream of our personal consumption.

(And apologies for all the parentheses)

Indifference where? You might be confusing what we as a society think with what the tabloids are willing to write about. Food waste is being steadily reduced, if you want to go bin raiding you have to go rural now cos it all gets hoovered up in the cities

Prompted by this I found the following document interesting reading https://wrap.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/food-%20surplus-and-%20waste-in-the-%20uk-key-facts-oct-21.pdf
We (as households) are the real culprits. There?s a great comparison in the paper that says the amount of household waste would fill a town the size of Peterborough. I?ll leave the obvious joke to the comedians amongst us.

 

[royfellows]

I agree with Boy Engineer but feel we are wondering off from the main thrust off the thread.

Any organic material dumped into a shaft will decompose and contaminate the water supply. This is often done through ignorance, or sometimes, the 'just could not care less attitude'. A farmer was doing this through ignorance and didn't realise the implications of the adit lower down where he had stock grazing. I explained it to him and he was grateful, and quite concerned.

The worse case was a certain landowner, (the property has changed hands so I will not name it) where raw sewage was being poured into a shaft straight from the tankers with the name of his company plastered on the side, and also other shafts. I reported it and he was eventually prosecuted. Rumour has it that it had contaminated his own drinking water and made the family quite ill.
If true, some would call it "Karma".

 

[Cantclimbtom]

* Food waste at every level is terrible, sounds like we're all singing from the same hymn sheet
*Even as a meat eater I am not at all happy with mass killing and disposal of birds and the vast majority (estimate 85%) are buried/dumped, think again everyone is on a similar tack

Aren't we conflating many issues and digressing from (what I think..) was Roy's very simple question

Please complete the following phrase or sentence
?If I had been there I would have????????????..?

I had given a vague answer that I'd offered an Anglo Saxon phrased opinion and probably made everything worse (and the person who filmed did the right thing)

But what of others, does anyone want to answer Roy's question? I'm intrigued..

EDIT: This post made while Roy was posting the previous one. His answer of explaining the issue is the best possible action?

 

[PeteHall]

Maybe someone could ask Ed if he has had the carcasses removed from there and if not does he need help (for a fee, which would be passed to mountain and cave rescue) I don't live locally but if I did I would offer

This is by far the best suggestion of action I've seen here. If we are really that concerned about water pollution, why not try to fix it? If that can also be done to raise the standing of cave/ mine explorers with the local land owners/ game keepers, it's a win, win situation and if it can raise some money for cave rescue at the same time, win, win, win.

Better to do it while they are fresh too!  :yucky:

Anyone local willing to give it a try?

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Some more dumped birds:

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/scores-game-birds-dumped-north-22911986

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Maybe someone could ask Ed if he has had the carcasses removed from there and if not does he need help (for a fee, which would be passed to mountain and cave rescue) I don't live locally but if I did I would offer

This is by far the best suggestion of action I've seen here. If we are really that concerned about water pollution, why not try to fix it? If that can also be done to raise the standing of cave/ mine explorers with the local land owners/ game keepers, it's a win, win situation and if it can raise some money for cave rescue at the same time, win, win, win.

Better to do it while they are fresh too!  :yucky:

Anyone local willing to give it a try?

I thought it was sensible when I first posted but further thought that's *assuming* it was a quadbike load on one or two recent occasions. If it turned out they'd been doing it since they started the shoot, or that the it was the farmer who disposes of the birds for them as part of the deal - and he's always used the shafts whenever an animal had a suspected notifiable disease, it might be years of rotten carcass.

Secondly it assumes that rescue team would be happy to accept donations from a shoot. Worst case is a team accepting money that causes argument and bad feeling in the team for a long time afterwards.

Whoever charges them to clean up should invoice them "robustly", and give them a "we're watching you" look.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

By a weird coincidence, just come back from a walk, and a bag containing 4 dead mallards had  been dumped in a hedge on a little used road - 2 fallen out. WTF is up with people?

 

[alanw]

By a weird coincidence, just come back from a walk, and a bag containing 4 dead mallards had  been dumped in a hedge on a little used road - 2 fallen out. WTF is up with people?

Dead of what? Avian Flu or shot? Perhaps someone has dumped them far away to avoid the slaughter and control zones?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu

 

[Cantclimbtom]

But are polythene bags chucked in a hedgerow, or thrown down shafts a responsible disposal method for birds however they died?

 

[alanw]

Failing to report an outbreak of avian flu is far more irresponsible.

 

[mikem]

Are they mallard type or domestic?

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Mallards by the looks of it. The shoreline round our area is all Nature Reserve, so there won't be any official shooting for miles. There is a derelict public park about 1/2 mile away, so they may be from there. Submitted a wotsit to the council. Male one carried by a dog maybe???

 

[ChrisJC]

I have no view on whether pheasant shooting should be legal or not. But I do enjoy eating the free pheasants that come my way!

However, the more interesting issue is now that fox hunting has been done away with, will the anti's go for pheasant shooting next?, or will they look at hare coursing? The answer exposes whether the animal rights rhetoric is really a cover for a class war...

Chris.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

I've got 4 ducks you can have here Chris!

 

[ChrisJC]

I've got 4 ducks you can have here Chris!

No thanks - my freezer is bulging with pheasant! I'm glad the season is over.

Chris.

 

[aricooperdavis]

now that fox hunting has been done away with, will the anti's go for pheasant shooting next?, or will they look at hare coursing?

I believe hare coursing is already illegal in the UK.

 

[AR]

now that fox hunting has been done away with, will the anti's go for pheasant shooting next?, or will they look at hare coursing?

I believe hare coursing is already illegal in the UK.

It is, under the same act of parliament as fox hunting.