Activists mock up bird cage cruelty outside the Senedd

Martin Shipton

Trapped inside tiny, barren cages for the day, animal welfare campaigners have staged a powerful demonstration outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay to expose the cruelty behind the caged breeding of game birds.

With little to sustain them and the only chance of freedom depending on the generosity of the public, the League Against Cruel Sports’ “birds” aim to highlight to the candidates standing in the 2026 Senedd election the low animal welfare standards involved in breeding the tens of millions of pheasants and partridges that are shot for sport every year in Britain, and why these cages need to be banned.

Breeding groups of pheasant and pairs of red-legged partridge are kept in cages that are only the size of an A4 piece of paper and endure immense suffering, including stress and breeding-related injuries and death.

Bleak

Emma Slawinski, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “These cages are tiny, they are bleak, and the birds suffer immensely. They are injured by attempting to fly out, and the females are injured by the male’s talons repeatedly pulling out her back feathers. All of this is so eggs can be produced in their tens of millions to provide birds that only exist to be shot.”

This call reflects the growing public demand for an end to cage-based farming systems. A UK Parliament petition, launched by actor and animal welfare advocate Joanna Lumley, to ban cages for farmed animals including pheasants, partridges, and quail has surpassed 100,000 signatures. This milestone will trigger a parliamentary debate and underscores widespread public concern over animal welfare.

Confined to human-sized cages and only allowed brief “escapes” when a member of the public signed the petition, the event aimed to make the cruelty of cage breeding starkly visible and emotionally resonant.

The League is urging both the UK and Welsh governments to act, calling on the Senedd to take the lead by legislating for a ban in Wales.

Wales is home to Europe’s largest game bird breeding farm, Bettws Hall in Powys, which produces and exports chicks across the UK and Ireland.

‘Leader in animal welfare’

Ms Slawinski added: “By acting decisively in the next Senedd term, Wales has the opportunity to strengthen its position as a leader in animal welfare by banning cages for breeding game birds and send a strong message that it does not tolerate cruelty in any form.

“Currently no specific legislation exists to protect the breeding and rearing of game birds and while the Welsh Government’s Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes states that game birds should have access to enough space to avoid stress and to allow the exhibition of normal behavior patterns, the reality for breeding pairs is that they suffer appallingly.

“It is time for change and it is time for these cruel cages to be banned.”

Snares

In 2023 Members of the Senedd voted to ban snares in Wales. The Agriculture (Wales) Act contains measures to outlaw these cruel and indiscriminate wildlife traps.

Before the ban, up to 51,000 snares lay hidden in the countryside at any one time according to UK Government figures.

Snares are used predominantly by shooting industry gamekeepers on pheasant and partridge shoots to trap wildlife.

The same Defra research showed that almost three quarters of the animals caught were not the intended target species. So, those animals affected included hares, badgers and people’s pets.

Polling carried out by YouGov in Wales in January 2021 showed 78% of the Welsh public wanted snares to be made illegal.

Will Morton, head of public affairs at the League Against Cruel Sports, said at the time: “The Senedd deserves huge credit for banning snares, inherently inhumane traps, which are completely incompatible with high animal welfare standards.

“Wales is leading the way in protecting wildlife from cruelty and we’re calling on the UK and Scottish governments to follow their lead and ban these brutal devices.”