FROM PROTECT THE WILD WITH THREE GAME FARMS BURNING DEAD BIRDS AND ANYHTING ELSE. BLOODY HELL THREE FARMS

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Burn Piles Exposed: As seen on Channel 4 News PROTECT THE WILD NOV 7 READ IN APP The shooting industry loves to call itself the “guardian of the countryside”. But, behind the claim and the ‘game’ bird farm buildings, we found something else. Over the summer of 2026, Protect the Wild investigators filmed burn piles at three ‘game’ farms. At every single one, we found the same thing: the bodies of pheasants and partridges, chicks and unhatched eggs, dumped alongside plastic and rubbish, left to rot, and set alight in the open air. Not just “one bad apple” We didn’t just go to one ‘game’ bird farm. We went to three, on purpose. Whenever a single farm is caught out, the industry calls it a one-off. One bad apple in an otherwise good bunch. So we filmed Hall Farm Gamestock in Leicestershire, Minster Game near Nottingham, and Shreeves Game Rearing on the edge of Nottingham. Three farms. Three hatcheries. The same burn pile, again and again and again. We did this to prove it is not just one bad apple. It is systemic. It appears to be how an industry that breeds millions of birds just to shoot them gets rid of its waste. Become a Game Changer All three farms, could be the same burn pile right? What we found Hall Farm Gamestock. We first filmed this pile in 2025. This year, we came back for ten days. Bodies and rubbish were dumped several times a day, and the pile was set alight four times. Dead birds were thrown in loose or in plastic bags, topped with soft plastic and wood. On one occasion, a worker was filmed emptying a canister marked with hazard warnings into the ground, then throwing the canister onto the fire. We still do not know what was in it. Minster Game. Over two weeks, the pile grew every single day: plastic, rubbish, and bags of pheasant and partridge bodies, chicks, eggshell and unhatched eggs. It was set alight just once. The rest was left to rot, crawling with maggots, for foxes, buzzards and crows to pick at. Shreeves Game Rearing. In ten days, the pile was set alight five times. It sits in the middle of the farm, and every time it burns, the smoke rolls straight into raised cages of live pheasants with nowhere to go. We also filmed a whole truckload of plastic, pipes, cables and wood being tipped onto the pile and burned. Green claims, black smoke: the secrets the shooting industry burns Hall Farm rears birds for the Thorpe Estate. On its website, the estate boasts of wildflower meadows, miles of new hedgerow, hundreds of native trees and more than a decade of investment in renewable energy. It says it is mindful of safeguarding the planet for future generations. Meanwhile, at the back of the farm that rears its birds, plastic, chemical canisters and animal bodies were burned on an open pile, week after week. This is the shooting industry’s version of environmentalism. Plant a hedgerow. Post about it. Then burn the plastic and the bodies where nobody is looking. You cannot call yourself a guardian of the countryside while poisoning the air above it. Born to be shot. Binned at birth. The shooting industry breeds far more birds than it can use. The ones it does not want end up on the pile. At Minster, we found unhatched chicks still inside their eggs among the ash. At Shreeves, hatchery footage appears to show workers crushing the necks of unwanted chicks before throwing them out with the eggshell. Other times, live chicks were simply left in the trays and bagged up with the waste. A burnt chick inside their egg amongst the Minster farm burn pile. On 3 June, our investigator found a chick alive in the Shreeves burn pile, hours after the farm had hatched a batch of eggs. We called her Pippi. Her neck is badly deformed, which suggests a botched attempt to kill her before she was dumped. Against all odds, she survived. Pippi now lives at a safe sanctuary with other pheasants. How many others were not so lucky? Pippi was found in the Shreeves farm burn pile - more to come on her! Become a Game Changer An open buffet for disease Foxes, buzzards and crows were filmed feeding on these piles. Every visit is a chance for disease to move from farmed birds into the wild, and back again. In a country battling bird flu outbreaks year after year, that should alarm everyone. There are rules for this. Animal carcasses and eggs are classed as animal by-products, and must be collected by an approved company or destroyed in a licensed incinerator. Burning them on an open pile, mixed with plastic and rubbish, is in our view against the law. Yet at three separate farms, it appears to be routine. Proper inspections and tighter regulation could stop this. Right now, it seems nobody is checking. More to come This is just the overview. Over the coming weeks, we will dig into every angle of this investigation: what we found at each farm, the industry’s environmental claims, the chicks thrown away alive, and the laws that appear to be broken with no one watching. Join the movement. Become a Game Changer. This is exactly what your monthly donations help make possible. Undercover investigators gathering evidence. Hundreds of hours of shocking footage being reviewed. Investigations turned into powerful stories reaching millions of people through national television, the press and our social media channels. More investigations. More national exposure. More pressure on the shooting industry. And ultimately, a stronger, better-funded campaign to bring bird shooting for sport to an end once and for all. But we can only keep exposing what this industry is hiding with your support. Right now, we have 875 Game Changers. Our goal is 1,000 by the end of this year but we’d love to get there even quicker. Every monthly donation, no matter how big or small, helps us investigate more farms, expose more cruelty and bring us closer to ending this industry for good. Will you become one of our first 1,000 Game Changers? Become a Game Changer SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start your Substack