AS the pheasant shooting season gets under way, the image participants seek to evoke is one of gentlemanly conduct, self-discipline and respect for the 'quarry.'
But pheasant rearing and shooting is now a massive business built on greed and excess, where the shed-reared birds are regarded as nothing more than feathered targets in a fairground-style shooting gallery.
Millions more birds are shot than are eaten. They continue to be mass produced to satisfy the base instincts of vain and boastful gunmen who associate manliness with the number of semi-domesticated birds they can blast out of the sky.
Animal Aid is at the forefront of alerting the public about the reality of this squalid and cowardly bloodsport. For more details, visit our website (www.animalaid.org.uk/pheasants) or call 01732 364546.
YVONNE TAYLOR, Campaigns Co-ordinator, Animal Aid, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent.
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