Shut Down Le Shuttle’s Cruelty Train – End Live Shooting Imports!
JOIN US TO ASK LE SHUTTLE TO STOP ALLOWING THE IMPORT OF GAME BIRDS
Le Shuttle (formerly Eurotunnel) is the only importer of birds to be shot with 39,507,544 live birds having been imported since 2022 and nearly 10 million in 2025.
It’s the peak of the summer holiday season. But are you sharing your journey to England with vans and lorries full of birds, who are destined to be shot on UK shooting estates? Do you want your hard earned holiday savings to fund bloodsports? Why not politely ask Le Shuttle to stop supporting the shooting industry using our email template.
Le Shuttle allows the import of live pheasant and partridge, who will be released for commercial shooting, into England. In 2019, ferry companies such as Brittany Ferries and DFDs ceased transporting live game birds, following the exposure of hideous conditions on European game farms. Though the two ferry companies will still transport pheasant and partridge eggs, which will be hatched on game farms.
Every year, the game bird industry cranks into overdrive. Cruelly and artificially breeding thousands of pheasant and partridge to be reared, sold and eventually released into the countryside to be shot for profit. Available data suggests that up to a quarter of the total number of game birds who are bred and released into the countryside for shooting are imported via Le Shuttle.
The game farming industry in Britain is not strong enough to supply the demand for this bloody business alone, so relies heavily on importing live birds and hatching eggs from France and Spain. Many of the live birds will be day old pheasant chicks, forced to endure journeys of over 10 hours before they even reach the shores of England.
Data shows that imports continue almost until the start of the shooting season, suggesting that adult birds are forced to endure the same long journeys, with survivors seeing little of the outside world before being shot during the shooting season.
Many of the birds imported by Le Shuttle will be reared on UK game farms. Multiple exposes have shown that game farms go largely unregulated. Recently, exposes in Wiltshire, Shropshire and previously Nottinghamshire have uncovered illegal waste dumping practices on game farms. With dead animals and other byproducts illegally and dangerously dumped outside and either burnt, or simply left to be picked apart by wild birds, creating a seriously large biosecurity risk.
One game farm in North Yorkshire has had to have the majority of their flock slaughtered in 2025 and 2026 due bird flu outbreaks. The links between avian flu, game farming and release of game birds are so obvious that the UK government has begun to consider licensing all game bird releases, in order to control the spread of disease.
Le Shuttle offers a lifeline to the shooting industry. An industry built on cruelty, masquerading as a conservation benefit for all.