Activists blamed for killing hundreds of pheasants

Animal rights activists are blamed for the deaths of hundreds of pheasants
Animal rights activists are blamed for the deaths of hundreds of pheasants

A young farmer has taken to social media to call out the 'lowlife scumbags' who killed hundreds of her pheasant chicks, thought to be animal rights activists.

23-year-old farmer, Eloise McDonald, woke to find dead chicks and hundreds of birds huddled together in her family run farm in Kent.

She wrote on Facebook: “Some lowlife scumbag so-called ‘animal lovers’ let out 20,000 of my birds, cut all the fencing, cut gas pipes, hundreds of week-old birds dead gasping for water and starving!”

The attack bears the hallmarks of recent incidents on game farms by animal rights activists.

In response to the horrific story, Countryside Alliance Chairman Tim Bonner told The Times: “The recent attacks on game farms are typical of the animal rights extremists - violent and callous - they should be treated as an extremist group.”

The incident, as well as others like this, have reiterated the need to include animal rights extremism in the work of the Commission for Countering Extremism, the group says.

The Countryside Alliance has written to the new Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to request that this is incorporated.

In an interview with the organisation during the leadership campaign, Boris Johnson was asked if he would commit to implementing measures to counter animal rights extremism, including any relevant recommendations from the government’s Commission for Countering Extremism.

He replied: “While I am committed to protecting animal welfare, I will not tolerate extremism, intimidation and abuse irrespective of the motives that drive it. I will consider any recommendations that come from the Commission.”

It comes as animal rights and vegan activists step up their operations in disrupting game farm businesses across the UK.

In March and April earlier this year, videos were released which shows the moment nearly 5,000 pheasants were purposefully let loose a game farm in Wiltshire and other counties.