Letter: Stop this cruelty
READERS may be shocked to learn that every year in Britain, more than 45 million pheasants and partridges are mass produced to serve as feathered targets for wealthy "guns".
This bloody and brutal end to their lives is the final insult. From birth, they are confined in cages, sheds, and pens, in which disease and death are a daily feature. Many birds, frightened and stressed, are fitted with devices that restrict their vision and prevent them from pecking their cage-mates.
About half of the released birds die before they can be gunned down. They perish from exposure, starvation, disease, or under the wheels of motor vehicles.
Only a fraction of the shot birds are eaten – even pro-shooting magazines have reported that many are buried in specially dug holes.
Killing animals for fun has no place in a civilised society. For information, contact Animal Aid on 01732 364546 or go to www.animalaid.org.uk.
PAT CHARMAN Eaton Street Mapperley
8 Comments
by N BRYANT, west sussex
Tuesday, December 08 2009, 4:58PM
“Just to correct things, baby Phesants are born in a good farming way with plenty of space, heat, food and water, once they are big enough they are moved into a large outside pen until they are fully grown when they are let out to fend for them selves, there are many Phesant feeders put out which are regularly topped up with feed so there is plenty of feed for the birds, many birds will live for a number of years if not shot or a food for the fox.”
by Badger Meat, Sett
Tuesday, November 10 2009, 12:17AM
“Yum Yum”
by B.Baiter, in a field near Bingham...
Monday, November 09 2009, 8:51PM
“Dan---do you like Badger --it's tough and smells but it's only a dumb animal who lives in a sett...”
by Dan, Tollerton
Monday, November 09 2009, 10:26AM
“Had a very nice Pheasant last night for supper. Shot by my father in law. We do eat eat everything he shoots, but as he is getting older that is not that many now.”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Monday, November 09 2009, 12:55AM
“Oh, oh, and it's based on the teachings of Peter Singer.
Who believes that the life of a baby is less valuable than that of an animal and the grounds for not killing people don't apply to infants.
And his book "Animal Rights" kicked off all the "Animal Rights" nonsense.
.”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Sunday, November 08 2009, 11:32PM
“Oh, and it says it's anti-violence.
Then again apparently:
Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, said he did not condone arson but called Horne (an animal rights bomber) a ¿thoroughly dedicated anti-vivisectionist.¿
From the "Animal Rights" website.
.”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Sunday, November 08 2009, 11:24PM
“Apologies, correction, it's not a charity.
.”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Sunday, November 08 2009, 10:19PM
“Pat Charman's letter ended with "Killing animals for fun has no place in a civilised society" and publicising an animal charity.
Strange when it had just admitted that "About half of the released birds die before they can be gunned down. They perish from exposure, starvation, disease......".
The simple fact is that the UK is not, and has not been for centuries, "natural". What wildlife there is only survives because of man. And, as Pat has proved, wildlife suffers far more from nature than from man, and individual animals, and whole species, survive better here when man intervenes to both breed and cull them.
Everyone from soppy pet lovers to psychotic animal liberationists might hate to acknowledge the fact, but it is a fact nontheless.
But don't the animal lib end of the spectrum complain both that keeping and feeding pets in the home is unnatural, and cause the animals they liberate to either die of starvation or decimate the local wildlife?
.”