AN IMMENSE POST FROM ROB POWNALL. PHEASANT FARMING AND POLLUTION

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more They want to breed 32,000 birds to be shot. Help us stop them. PROTECT THE WILD OCT 25 READ IN APP On the edge of the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, near Brixton Deverill in Wiltshire, sits a pheasant rearing field. Part of Woodcombe Farm, it contains twelve sheds, up to 2,000 pheasant and partridge chicks in each, raised to be shot. That’s not enough for Woodcombe. It wants four more sheds, taking the site to 16 sheds and 32,000 birds. That’s another 8,000 birds a ‘season’. We oppose these sites on principle, of course. End Bird Shooting is supporting Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) in objecting to planning application PL/2026/02714. Wiltshire Council’s own ecologist has already lodged a formal objection. We need you to add yours. Here’s why… Sign Our Petition A chalk stream under pressure The site lies around 200 metres from the River Wylye, a chalk stream that forms the headwaters of the River Avon Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Chalk streams are among the rarest freshwater habitats on Earth. Around 85% of all the chalk streams on Earth are located in England. a fish swimming in a shallow body of water Photo by Jon Sailer on Unsplash The River Avon is protected for its Atlantic salmon, sea and brook lamprey, bullhead, and its precious chalk-stream plant life. This river is already struggling with phosphorus pollution. Natural England now requires new development in the catchment to prove “nutrient neutrality”, meaning no net increase in phosphorus. Thousands of confined birds produce vast quantities of droppings. Those droppings carry phosphorus and ammonia into soil and water. Wiltshire County Council’s ecologist has warned that the expansion could harm the SAC through phosphorus discharge, alone or combined with other development. She has said permission cannot be granted unless the Council completes a Habitats Regulations Assessment that reaches a positive conclusion and Natural England agrees with it. The applicant has supplied no nutrient evidence at all. Her objection doesn’t stop there. Aerial photographs show large areas of bare ground left by the existing rearing operation. She also concludes the scheme does not appear to qualify for the biodiversity net gain exemption the applicant has claimed. Sign Our Petition Salami Slicing? Woodcombe has grown its rearing facility in steps: 7 sheds in 2018 10 sheds in 2022 12 sheds in 2024 an enlarged boundary in December 2025 and now a request for yet more sheds. Together these applications add up to a substantial, intensive operation that has never been screened for a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Planners call this “salami slicing”: dividing one large project into smaller applications that each slip under the thresholds for proper scrutiny. The courts have been clear that environmental rules cannot be sidestepped this way, whether by design or by accident. We can’t state definitively that ‘salami slicing’ is driving the staggered expansion at Woodcombe, but CAFF calculates that, if assessed as a single installation, the 16-shed site would exceed the 500m² threshold at which intensive livestock units must be considered for EIA. The council must assess the whole operation, not just the latest slice. There’s more. Only last December, the council capped the site at twelve units to protect the National Landscape and neighbours. Less than a year later, the applicant wants to break that cap. Their own Supporting Statement even says there is “ample room” for two more sheds, yet they are applying for four. Sign Our Petition Cruelty by design The breeding and rearing of birds for the gun as a whole is inherently cruel. Our undercover Investigations series has documented chicks tipped onto conveyor belts, live chicks found chirping beneath dumped eggs, filthy breeding cages, and the “dead week” when worn-out birds are disposed of. And all these birds are being raised so that armed hobbyists can blast holes into them anyway. What does the applicant have to say about animal welfare? Nothing. The Supporting Statement is a single page. It talks about demand, rotation and traffic, but the words “animal welfare” don’t appear once. The High Court confirmed last year that animal welfare can be a material planning consideration. The applicant hasn’t addressed it at all. Act now The Woodcombe application is about more than four sheds. It’s about whether an industry that breeds birds in their millions to be shot for entertainment can keep expanding, unchecked - and in this case by one of England’s most precious rivers. If you live in Wiltshire: use CAFF’s quick objection tool at caff.org.uk/woodcombe. It takes a couple of minutes, and you can add your own reasons for objecting. Tool for Wiltshire residents If you live elsewhere in England please add your name to Protect the Wild’s email petition here: Stop the expansion of a pheasant rearing site in Wiltshire Wiltshire residents who would prefer to send an objection directly to Wiltshire County Council can email: developmentmanagement@wiltshire.gov.uk. Please state that you are objecting, include your full name and address, and quote the planning application reference PL/2026/02714. Every objection counts. Please share this with anyone who cares about wildlife, rivers or animals. Let’s make sure Wiltshire Council hears us loud and clear. Sign Our Petition We are working to END BIRD SHOOTING. This suffering has to stop. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates. Join the movement. Become a Game Changer. We have been hard at work. Months of undercover work. Hundreds of hours of footage. Farms across the UK exposed. We are making a difference. But we are only just getting started. Many of you have already become a Game Changer, standing with us as we take this fight forward, week by week, piece by piece, until the public, the media and the politicians can no longer look away. We are extremely grateful. We are reaching a larger audience all the time, though, many who won’t know that Game Changers helps us fund investigations, take on staff, and make us more effective. So we are going to repeat the call here - this is just the beginning, please be a part of it. 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