What do you think

A quad bike, returning from winter feeding, is driven close past the kitchen window.

A pheasant shoot is more than standing in a line and pointing a gun skywards. It is more than planting trees and waiting for them to grow. It is more than erecting a giant netted enclosure and filling it with hundreds of pheasants. Man-made structures are maintained, nature is constrained and pheasants are fed, daily. Not knowing how a pheasant shoot functioned, I had no idea how intrusive it would become. I suspect many people, whether they shoot or not, have no idea either and are therefore unaware of the disproportionate intrusion and disturbance shooting causes.

The planned access to the pens and feeders is very intrusive. Such proximity has destroyed the peace and privacy that I previously enjoyed.

The Pens where the young pheasants are put in July.

The Site of Special Scientific Interest, often referred to as a SSSI

My home.

The new tree planting is shown in dark green.

The planned access route is shown in black.

The landowners home.

FEBRUARY - JULY Fence post driving, pipeline and tarmac laying, flailing and cutting, chopping and sawing, spraying and clearing, mending and repairing, collecting and delivering, coming and going.


This did not happen before the shoot, these pictures were taken from my cottage windows.

JULY - FEBRUARY Feeding hundreds, thousands of pheasants is relentless. Self-feed hoppers and tube feeders dotted across the land have to be filled and re-filled over and over again. They are supplemented by the regular spreading of seed from a rear-mounted mule feeder. Tracks become muddy quagmires.


This did not happen before the shoot.

Relentless close access disturbs and intrudes.

A driven pheasant shoot is an annual cycle of killing. Shooting does not stop at the end of the season: it continues intermittently throughout the spring and summer without warning. Well-fed wild pheasants and a liberal supply of feed scattered across the land creates a veritable banquet for native creatures.

Human beings shoot, trap and poison the native creatures that might harm the habitat of, or kill, what they want to kill for fun.