Bearing in mind HAH 1st Sep 2018 comments below and remembering St Cyril of Jerusalem’s teaching that hunting and horseracing are examples of the pomp of the devil, this edited email received earlier today seems one way we can help by asking our respective councils or Church to ban ‘sport’ hunting on its land.

Pheasant Shooting to end on public land in Wales

Today is a good day for pheasants, a bad day for shooters and a memorable day for all of us – that includes you – who have campaigned so hard for so long.

Today, in a landmark move, Natural Resources Wales agreed to end pheasant shooting on Welsh public land. The announcement comes off the back of a three-year-long campaign by Animal Aid and the League Against Cruel Sports, which included over 12,500 people signing a petition to the government agency.

We couldn’t have done it without you.

This outcome reflects strong opposition to the practice from the Welsh Government, the 74% of the public who oppose shooting birds for sport, and an urgent need to reverse damage to wildlife and the environment on the public estate.

The life of a pheasant reared for sport is horrific. They live for months crammed inside small wire mesh cages that often don’t even meet the welfare standards of intensively farmed chickens. That is until one day, the pheasant is suddenly released into Welsh government woodland, along with thousands of other birds – only to be gunned down by shooting parties for ‘sport’. Many pheasants are not killed instantly and hit the ground suffering from painful wounds and injuries. They are pitifully killed by having their necks broken or being hit over the head with a beater’s stick.

But this cruelty is coming close to an end in Wales, as the leases for shooting estates will not be renewed when they come to an close in March 2019. This means that pheasants living on public land owned by Natural Resources Wales can live without fear of being shot.

We thank those who have relentlessly pursued an end to pheasant shooting in the Welsh national forest, including Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn AM and you; our supporters. This is as much a victory for you as it is for the wildlife which has now been spared the gun.

But this is only the beginning of the end of ‘game’ bird shooting in the UK. There has never been a better time than now to push for a nation-wide policy against shooting covering not only Wales, but England, Scotland and Northern Ireland too.

To make this happen we must keep this momentum up. Talking with MPs. Rallying even more people like you against shooting. And making the national parties take note that a majority of the public want to see an end to shooting birds for sport.