Help - shoot burning pheasants and feeding them to my pigs!!

[muppet]

Please can someone help and advise what I should do. I went to check the pigs this evening, much later than normal, and there was a bonfire lit in their paddock. Turns out the gamekeeper has been burning the pheasants from the shoot, which is utterly dispicable anyway, but even worse, my pigs were able to access and eat the carcasses!!

What can I do and should I report it to anyone (and if so who)? They’ve been having a few bonfires there this winter but I hadn’t put two and two together and reaslised it was for 150 pheasants

 

[kfpben]

Really? Seems pretty odd behaviour.
Talking to the keeper I would imagine being a good start.

 

[primmiemoo]

Pigs already shut back in? Doubt it'd do any more harm to them than quietly scoffing a pigeon.

Have a strong word with gamekeeper! Get him(?) to remove the illegal bits.

 

[roscoe erf]

thought this was going to be a diversification thread

 

[muppet]

I have “spoken” to him and he is putting the fire out and clearing away the carcasses, but this must have been going on every week since mid October! It’s not my shoot, and therefore he doesn’t work for me, and tensions between farm and shoot are very high

[ edit: pigs are in an enclosed walled garden, and the fire is obviously being done there to keep it hidden from passers by. There’s no way of separating the pigs from the fire]

 

[David.]

Are your pigs on ground owned by whoever owns or let's the shooting?
Start with them, if so..

 

[primmiemoo]

Lazy shoot should be donating the birds to soup kitchens. Shameless, thoughtless, brain dedd lot to waste them.

 

[nick...]

It’s just despicable killing birds for “sport” and then dumping the carcasses.surely they can be used and give to someone
Nick...

 

[Suffolk Serf]

It is of course illlegal to feed meat, raw or cooked to pigs. I very much doubt that it will have done them any harm though- mine have been known to be a bit quicker than the pickers up.

What is wrong though is the complete lack of respect that the keeper has shown to you, your pigs and the shot pheasants.

 

[roscoe erf]

Lazy shoot should be donating the birds to soup kitchens. Shameless, thoughtless, brain dedd lot to waste them.

I bet they wouldn't accept them on. health and safety grounds food hygiene or because they wouldn't have a clue what to do with them

 

[primmiemoo]

What a shame.

 

[faircomment]

There is a fair chance they are the birds that are not fit to go to the game dealer due to being shot to close?

 

[nick...]

I’ve found a few bags of dead pheasants dumped in a ditch here a couple of years back.its just a waste
Nick...

 

[Paddington]

Go round to keeper's cottage for informal chat at front door and get someone to let your pigs in at the back door.

 

[An Gof]

By pass the keeper and go direct to shoot owner. Have a “full and frank” discussion in which you make him/her fully aware of the potential ramifications if this continues and was to get in the press.
Shoot owner may not know, gamekeeper is a “tool” and risking the reputation of the whole shooting sector.
Act immediately and think about deleting this thread.

 

[Netherfield]

I've read that there aren't enough chefs and game dealers interested anymore. Been dumping the spoils for quite a while now, my brother was doing some work on an estate a couple of years ago, there was a pile of pheasants dumped, was told to help himself if he wanted.

 

[michael N123]

I’m happy we’ve never shot anymore than 40 a day on our shoot and the birds get used up

I’ve never understood the big number days there’s really no point

 

[A1an]

Completely unacceptable.

Be sure that the 'carcasses' are in fact carcasses. It has been reported more than once that pheasants have been dumped when, in reality, they are birds that have had the breasts and legs removed for eating then the remains used for fox baits/middens. At first glance it can look like whole birds .

 

[davieh3350]

Was telling folks from Canada about pheasant shoots over here, they looked shocked, a pheasant shoot where they are from is head out with a gun and hunt one for tea.
it's a joke over here, disgusting in fact.

pigs are omnivores, wouldn't harm them other than lead poisoning and too much antibiotics

 

[Fiveospades]

One of our local shoots used to take the excess birds to game dealer, now the game dealer is overwhelmed with birds and said he would collect partridges only and could not pay anything for them.
We need to educate the public that game is both cheap and nutritious and most of allmake it trendy to eat.
The gamekeeper mentioned should be condemned for his actions and if he were my keeper he would be on his way no matter how good he was.
We now have a generation that would find it repulsive to pluck and dress a game bird, if you are out anywhere in company of 'the modern family' ask if they would be willing to prepare a bird still feathered up to eat. The contorted faces will probably answer your question.