The HSA can exclusively reveal that almost 10 million game birds were imported into the UK in 2025. Over 1.6 million live birds were imported to be reared, released and shot in the countryside up and down the UK.
Over 8 million eggs were also imported; bought by game hatcheries to rear, release and sell to shoots. This means that 37% of the official number of the “wild game birds” released for shooting last year were imported from factory farms in France and Spain.
A Freedom of Information Request submitted by the HSA has revealed that over nine million live game birds and hatching eggs were imported into the UK during 2025. A dramatic increase on the total for 2024. The majority of the live birds will have been day old chicks, with some “poults” and adult ex egg layers in the mix as well. All will have been bred on intensive game farms and brought to the UK to be reared, released and shot as part of the game industry.
This vast number of birds is made up by 8.7 million Pheasants and the remainder Red-Legged and Grey Partridges. A shockingly high amount of birds imported for an industry who claims to support “native biodiversity”, while simultaneously turning the countryside into a cruel playground of biodiversity monoculture. In fact, the number of game bird imports has increased annually for the last five years.
As reported by Guy Shrubsole here, the officially registered number of game birds released into the countryside is almost half of the 50 million claimed by the shooting fraternity. Something doesn’t add up and it would appear the industry is not being effectively regulated to ensure accurate data is captured and reported. Therefore it is not possible to know the exact proportion of imported pheasant and partridge within the total number of gamebirds released in 2025. However, as over eight million hatching eggs were also imported in 2025, it’s obvious that imported birds are a significant part of the overall kill quota in the UK.
For the last three years, France and Spain have remained the only live game bird exporters to the UK.
French gamebirds make up over 70% of all 2025 imports with the majority being Pheasants and a comparatively low numbers of Grey and Red-Legged Partridges. Because of this reliance, breeding conditions in France can have a big influence on the shooting season in the UK with the 2022/23 season being marred by a bird flu outbreak in the two key French game farming regions. In 2025, a lower number of imported pheasant eggs meant the industry looking for ways to adapt and the FOI revealed that nearly one and a quarter million live game birds were imported between April and July last year. France also accounted for just under 70% of all hatching egg imports in 2025, out of a total seven countries.
Spain’s live imports comprised entirely Grey Partridges – nearly half a million – almost double the 2024 figure. The majority are likely adult ex laying birds shipped directly to shoots in August and September. Ironically, Grey Partridge are red listed as a species of conservation concern in the UK, largely due to agricultural intensification. It seems highly unlikely that intensively farmed birds imported to be shot will make a dent in this status!
Avian flu was found in game flocks as early as July last year. As mentioned in our previous article covering game shooting and bird flu, 25,000 breeding pheasants had been destroyed by August. Should we be surprised that summer is also the peak time for importing live game birds, directly increasing the number of animals living in the well documented squalid conditions on game farms? While game birds cannot be imported from active Avian Flu areas, previous research has shown that the regulation of game bird movements within certain avian flu designated areas are lax at best, so who knows what the real impact of the game industry on avian flu outbreaks might actually be and what the true source might be?!
The HSA’s shooting officer said:
“Since 2022, the volume of gamebirds imported into the UK – live or unhatched – has increased by 150%. Our investigation shows that foreign birds continue to make up a significant proportion of the staggering number blown out of our skies every year. What a short and cruel life they are dealt – with live birds having to endure the stress of long journeys before being reared in often cramped and unsanitary conditions on game farms and shooting estates before being shot by trigger happy morons with many suffering a slow, agonising death from their injuries on the ground.
The shooting industries claims of conversation and boosts for the rural economy ring rather hollow when its clear that their rabid greed and bloodlust requires the purchase, import and release of millions of non-native birds into our environment every year.
How can it be that in the age of avian flu epidemics – and the threat of zoonotic transmission of viruses to humans – that the UK is prepared to allow the mass importation of birds reared in other countries just to sustain this barbarism?”
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