Tens of millions of pheasants and partridges are reared in pens annually for release into the UK countryside for driven game shooting, with welfare concerns spanning intensive rearing and release mortality.
The welfare of pheasants and partridges in the UK shooting industry spans two distinct phases with different welfare profiles. The rearing phase involves conditions typical of intensive poultry production — crowding, beak modification, restricted behaviour — that cause welfare harm familiar from commercial poultry farming. The release phase creates a different welfare challenge: animals adapted to intensive rearing face an environment for which they lack the behavioural repertoire, with high predation mortality, starvation, and road traffic as the primary causes of death. The welfare and ecological implications of releasing tens of millions of non-native, semi-domesticated birds into the countryside annually are substantial and receive insufficient public and regulatory scrutiny.