Healthy eating is a hot topic at the moment. In the wake of their exposé of the cruelty of factory-farmed chicken, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have trumpeted pheasant meat as an ethical and natural alternative.

However, they could not be more wrong. Annually, some 42 million pheasants and partridges are purpose-bred to serve as feathered targets for wealthy 'guns'. Production typically involves the use of metal battery cages, as well as industrial hatcheries, sheds and pens. Drugs are administered to the birds in an attempt to control diseases that are the inevitable consequence of intensive farming.

After release, beaters scare the birds into the sky – and some 40% of birds seen to be shot are wounded but not retrieved. Instead, they die from their wounds or under the wheels of vehicles.

Animal Aid has produced a new factsheet dispelling the myths surrounding the production of pheasants, called 'Cheating the Public'. It can be downloaded from www.animalaid.org.uk or ordered by calling 01732 364546.

Fiona Pereira

Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1AW