Pheasants are game birds , so some one somewhere has taken time and care to raise them. I think it would be bad form to shoot them as a pest. They're bred for sport.
Exactly.
The pheasant isn't originally a native of this country, they were introduced specifically as game, so not only has someone taken the time and care to raise them....but
buy them too....and they ain't cheap!!
Shotgunners pay thousands of pounds a year for a peg on an estate, which employs Gamekeepers and (sometimes even ) Junior Gamekeepers and other staff to tend to the birds needs two or three times a day (feeding and watering) when they are poults, right up until they are released from the safety of their pens into the countryside. Even then, the Gamekeepers try to keep the birds from straying off the land they were released on, and on shoot days, the estate will hire in 'beaters' to drive the birds towards the guns, and also 'pickers' who have well trained expensive dogs to retrieve the shot birds. Obviously, all this costs a HUGE amount of money and organisation every year, which is why the shotgunning community can get more than a bit miffed if someone comes in and pilfers 'their sport' by shooting 'their' pheasants.
So although shooting (in season) pheasants using an airgun isn't technically illegal (poaching notwithstanding), whether you feel it is actually ethical and fair is another matter.
I would also question if they could actually be shot using 'pests' as a valid reason, because from my understanding of it, they are not on the 'pest' species list (be aware the general licences differ between
WALES,
Scotland and
england).
