Campaign timeline

Campaign Timeline

Caged, wounded and distressed: latest game bird farm investigation

May 2022

Undercover investigations reveal routine horror at game farms

July 2021

Cruelty in the countryside. Animal Aid’s latest investigation into bird traps

April 2021

Latest undercover game farm investigation reveals suffering

April 2021

Undercover investigation reveals partridges in barren, unenriched metal cages on Suffolk game farm

August 2020

The Independent ran an article naming the supermarkets that still have links to farms that cage game birds

December 2019

Live chicks ground up in macerators at game farms

August 2019

Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith signalled his support for the campaign

August 2019

Our ‘ban gamebird cages’ adverts were featured on the sides of buses that passed the Defra building

April-May 2019

A YouGov poll found that 80 per cent of people oppose the use of cages for game birds

June 2018

Rooks left in cage traps and a male pheasant shot out of season

May-June 2018: Chargot Estate, Somerset

90% of cages examined were barren and one contained a dead bird

May 2018: Bettws Hall, Powys

Barren cages and pheasants trapped out of season

March 2018: Bettws Hall, Powys

Dead partridges left on top of cages and other birds kept in sub-zero temperatures

February 2018: Heart of England, Warwickshire

The Labour Party released details of their policy to ban intensive rearing of pheasants, partridges and other game birds.

February 2018

Animal Aid’s investigations reported by media

June & July 2017 (three visits): Heart of England, Warwickshire

Investigators found dead pheasant chicks in the rearing sheds

July 2017: Bonson Wood, Somerset

Animal Aid investigators found pheasants kept in barren cages in contravention of the Code of Practice

June 2017: Bettws Hall, Powys

Animal Aid investigators found stressed pheasants in poor physical condition

May 2015: Bettws Hall, Powys

Animal Aid investigators filmed partridges in barren cages, and received written response from Minister

May 2015: Heath Hatcheries, Suffolk

The Green Party promises to ban the use of cages to rear game birds

April 2015

Animal Aid investigators found pheasants fitted with beak shrouds leaping at the wire mesh, and dead birds in the cages

May 2014: Bettws Hall, Powys

RSPCA updates published policies to include gamebirds

2014

Animal Aid findings reported to North Yorkshire Animal Health

June 2011: Westfield Farm, North Yorkshire

Animal Aid investigators found dead and dying chicks in 20 sheds

May 2011: Wrekin Farm, Shropshire

Animal Aid investigators found many dead and mortally injured chicks. Requested meeting with DEFRA

May 2011: Worcestershire Game Farm

New Coalition government scrap the proposed ban on battery cages for pheasants and partridges.

July 2010

Defra announced a new Code of Practice that would effectively ban the use of battery cages for pheasants and partridges

March 2010

Animal Aid investigators filmed at four producers where scores of thousands of pheasants and partridges were confined in battery cages

2005

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation announced its support for a ban on the use of battery cages

February 2005