Campaigners locked up in cages outside Plaid Cymru conference

Stephen Price

Animal welfare campaigners were locked up in cramped cages outside the Plaid Cymru conference today to highlight the suffering pheasants and partridges face and to call for an end to their use to breed game birds in Wales.

The campaigners from animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports mimicked the distress game birds face being confined to cages for breeding outside the conference in Llandudno, and called on the Welsh government to outlaw the shooting industry from using them.

Welsh government figures show that between 800,000 and 2.3 million non-native pheasants and partridges are released in the Welsh countryside every year to be shot for sport. These birds are often the result of intensive industrial scale breeding across Wales using raised battery style cages with metal walls and wire mesh roofs and floors.

A severe lack of space and the conditions of their confinement for these semi-wild birds, leads to distress and injuries, including damaged beaks, foot lesions, wounds from stress-induced aggression, and scalping on wire mesh roofs when they attempt to escape.

Jamie Adair, public affairs officer for Wales from the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Keeping pheasants and partridges in cages for breeding causes these birds an immense amount of suffering and is an animal welfare issue that needs to be addressed by the Welsh Government.

“The Welsh government now has a clear opportunity to demonstrate leadership on animal welfare issues by including game birds in its work on ending the use of cages for farmed animals.”

Game birds such as pheasants and partridges do not enjoy the basic legal protections such as minimum space requirements which are afforded to birds farmed for food such as chickens and turkeys.

Polling conducted by YouGov in 2021 found that 72 per cent of the Welsh public opposed the use of cages to breed pheasants and partridges.

The caged breeding event outside conference coincided with the start of the pheasant shooting season in Wales which began on 1 October.

Jamie added: “We highlighted to Plaid Cymru members today the distress that using cages for breeding game birds causes.

“The use of cages for farmed animals needs to end and this ban on using cages in Wales should include the many pheasants and partridges being kept for breeding in appalling conditions.”

Animal welfare act

Following Plaid’s historic victory in May, the League, along with other animal charities and legal experts urged the new Plaid Cymru government to “put animals back at the heart” of the Animal Welfare Act.

A coalition of animal welfare charities, lawyers and academics want changes to the way the Animal Welfare Act 2006 is interpreted and applied, warning that millions of animals are still suffering unnecessarily despite existing legal protections.

Polling shows that Wales has the highest proportion of people identifying as animal lovers (75%) of any UK country. The coalition says it is essential that the newly elected Welsh Government reflects the will of the voters and makes Wales a better place for animals, as it has committed to in its manifesto, promising to produce a “renewed Animal Health and Welfare Plan addressing the welfare of both companion animals and farm animals.”

In a letter written by The Animal Law Foundation, it is argued that the 2006 Act has yet to reach its full potential and that Plaid Cymru now has a unique opportunity to address this. Weak interpretation, poor enforcement and the exclusion of entire categories of animals have allowed widespread and avoidable suffering to continue.

The letter, coordinated by the Animal Law Foundation and The League Against Cruel Sports, is supported by over 60 signatories, including organisations such as Compassion in World Farming, Born Free Foundation and World Animal Protection, as well as leading legal professionals, veterinarians and animal welfare scientists.

The coalition says that Plaid Cymru’s commitment to animal welfare must build on the successes of previous governments, which include the introduction of CCTV in slaughterhouses and the banning of greyhound racing, to show the Welsh public that it will not compromise on the protection of animals and that the laws that have already been passed will apply in practice.

‘Fully protected’

Edie Bowles, Executive Director of The Animal Law Foundation said: “The anniversary of the Animal Welfare Act provides the new Welsh Government a unique opportunity to take stock of where we are and where we need to go to ensure animals are fully protected under the law.

“Plaid has the opportunity to fulfill its promises made in its election manifesto – to set high standards for the treatment of all animals – and this starts with ensuring the laws already in place mean something in practice.

“The Animal Law Foundation has a growing body of work demonstrating that correct legal interpretation works. In a landmark victory, we ended boiling lobsters and crabs alive by showing that it is illegal under the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations 2015, which prohibits avoidable suffering at the time of killing for these animals.

“Our success demonstrates a critical point: common practice is not the same as lawful practice. It is entirely possible, and necessary, to reset interpretations of the law so that they reflect both its wording and its purpose.”

‘Two-tier system’

Emma Slawinski, Executive Director of the League Against Cruel Sports said at the time: “Excluding animals not ‘under the control of man’ creates a two-tier system of protection, allowing responsibility for welfare to be abandoned when animals are most vulnerable.

“Gamebirds such as pheasants and partridges are protected while farmed, then reclassified as wild, and so unprotected, on release, leaving them to suffer lingering injuries after being poorly shot for sport. Stabbing, or stoning a wild animal like a rabbit is illegal under a different law, but could be punished far less severely than if the animal were a pet. This inconsistency is illogical and unjustified.”

Edie Bowles added: “Twenty years on, it’s time to put animals back into the Animal Welfare Act. Animals in Wales cannot wait another 20 years for the protections they are legally entitled to. By interpreting and enforcing the law correctly we can eliminate unnecessary suffering and ensure all animals can live lives that meet their needs.”

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