Game: Birds

(asked on 10th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the welfare of (a) caged and (b) non-caged game birds; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 17th July 2018

Defra commissioned research into gamebird rearing from 2010 to 2012: AW1303 “Study to determine whether cage-based breeding can meet the needs of game birds, and if not, to identify best practice”. This research found that for pheasants and partridges, providing increased space does not necessarily equate with enhanced welfare.

Defra’s advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC), was tasked with considering all aspects of gamebird farming to feed into future work in this area. This assessment included a range of traditional and more intensive methods of gamebird breeding and rearing, including: breeding partridges in cages; breeding pheasants in grass pens or raised cages; rearing partridges and pheasants in brooder huts with grass pens; and commercial broiler chicken-type sheds with outdoor runs. In 2008, it published an Opinion on the Welfare of Farmed Gamebirds and its recommendations fed into Defra’s current Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325047/FAWC_opinion_on_the_welfare_of_farmed_gamebirds.pdf

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