SIR – Worcester News readers may be shocked to learn that every year in Britain about 50 million pheasants and partridges are mass-produced to serve as feathered targets for wealthy ‘guns’.

From birth they are confined in cages, sheds and pens, in which disease and death are a daily feature.

Many birds, frightened and stressed, are fitted with restraining devices over their beaks to prevent them from pecking their cage mates.

About half the released birds die before they can be gunned down. They perish from exposure, starvation, disease or predation, or under the wheels of motor vehicles.

Only a fraction of the shot birds are eaten – even proshooting magazines have reported that many are buried in specially dug holes.

Killing animals for fun has no place in a civilised society.

For a free anti-shooting action pack, contact Animal Aid on 01732 364546 or go to animalaid.org.uk.

PHILIPPA LEES
Tenbury Wells