A code for the rearing of gamebirds has long been planned through secondary legislation following the passing of the Animal Welfare Act in 2008. In essence, the code is a good idea and based on the existing code of good game rearing practice as applied by the Game Farmers Association. Over the past 18 months, the Defra Gamebird Working Group has met to decide the exact contents of the code.
The Gamebird Working Group includes representatives from the Countryside Alliance, Game Farmers Association, National Gamekeepers Organisation, the CLA, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, BASC, the League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA. Regular readers of the shooting magazines will be aware that BASC, the League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA all opposed raised laying units, stating that they were incompatible with shooting and the welfare of the birds.
However, experts from the Farm Animal Welfare Council and the GWCT both found that when raised laying units were managed properly there was no welfare case to answer. The findings were backed by the Alliance, the NGO and the CLA. BASC did not agree and urged the previous Labour government to ban the laying units. The previous Labour minister Jim Fitzpatrick went on to approved a code riddled with last minute changes which rendered it unworkable. The Sun reported our story that the code banned pheasants from having sex – by restricting the mixing of breeding flocks.
Working with other organisations, the Countryside Alliance lobbied the new government to withdraw this unworkable code so that game shooting and game farming would not suffer unnecessary restrictions but the welfare of the reared birds would remain paramount. Happily, this has now been achieved. The new minister, Jim Paice, withdrew the code and called a final meeting of the Defra Gamebird Working Group to address concerns. A revised, improved code will be re-laid before Parliament.) |
