Shoots urged to use every bird as chiller network triples

The Country Food Trust (CFT) has tripled its network of game chillers this season and is urging shoots and Guns to make sure every bird is used.

The charity is now running six chillers, worth £20,000 each, around the UK with a further two pending, three times the number it operated last season. The food poverty charity takes both pheasants and partridges in the feather and sends them to a gamedealer for processing. They come back as packs of six breasts, which are then distributed via foodbanks and community kitchens across the UK. The CFT asks for a donation to be made by the shoot or Guns to cover processing.

Why the Country Food Trust wants every shot bird used

Chief executive SJ Hunt said: “Responsible shooting is sustainable shooting and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that all shot birds make it into the food chain. Be mindful of how birds are handled the minute they hit the ground to ensure they are fit for processing. We have enormous demand for the meat and by participating in the scheme, Guns and shoots are helping their local community obtain much-needed protein.”

How a Perthshire estate uses the scheme

Brian Dickson, headkeeper at Glenalmond estate in Perthshire for 34 years, has made use of the service for the past three seasons. The estate shoots over 3,500 acres of low ground, taking pheasants and partridges. About 40% of the birds are used in-house and the rest go to the CFT, collected from the larder the day after a shoot by its Scottish trustee, Mark French.

As Glenalmond is not a commercial shoot but a private one for friends and family, the estate, rather than the Guns, pays a set fee per bird for them to be uplifted and subsequently processed.

Brian told Shooting Times: “If gamebirds are not being used, then we cannot defend shooting. To my mind, it is as simple as that. The CFT portrays shooting in a good light with the general public and makes people realise there is good coming from it.”

Brian uses his morning safety briefing to explain to Guns where their birds are going.

“Every single time, I get a round of applause,” he said, adding: “But really the applause belongs to the CFT, not me.”