Promise to get out of the British player shooting ahead, failed, study finds | hunting

A voluntary promise to carry out a toxic lead shot in Great Britain has failed, which means that wild animals and human health are endangered, according to a study.

The vow, which was carried out by the nine leading games in Great Britain and rural organizations in February 2020, aimed at benefiting wildlife and environment and being poisonous to get out of the human food chain. They wanted to have the lead into the phase by 2025 and hoped to avoid a full ban on the government. It is recommended that birds are shot with non -toxic cartridges from metals such as steel instead.

A study with 171 pheasants that were killed in the shooting time 2024-25 showed that where there was still a shot in the carcass, all of them were killed with bleim. The team also analyzed the shotgun pellets that were found in Red Grouse Cadaver in the same season and were offered for sale via Butchers' shops and online retailers. In all 78 Auer tap bodies from which every shot was recovered, the shot was lead.

Birds often confuse poisonous lead pellets with seeds and food, said charity organizations, and the Wildvrowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) estimated that lead poisoning in Great Britain kills up to 100,000 water birds every winter.

Lead is toxic for humans even in very small concentrations and particularly harmful to young and unborn children. Many food security authorities recommend that small children and pregnant women should avoid or minimize the food of playing meat from animals that have been killed with bleim.

The government must make a decision on whether it should ban ammunition by March 13.

The health and security manager has recommended DEFRA that the use of lead shot for shooting and the target series of Live Stirbruch is prohibited in order to adhere to an estimated 7,000 tons of lead every year. The use of lead shot in wetlands is already prohibited in Europe.

The WWT, RSPB, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Chem Trust and Wild Justice also asked the government to set up a complete ban.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of the Highlands and Islands have published a study in the evidence of the preservation of the magazine, in which the intended transition had failed.

The researchers have monitored the effects of the promise every year and recruited volunteers in order to buy entire pheasants of butchers, play dealers and supermarkets throughout the UK and to restore embedded shotgun pellets for analysis.

“Many members of the shooting community had hoped that the voluntary promise of lead ammunition would avert the need to regulate. But the voluntary route has now been tested – with efforts by many people – and it was not successful, ”said Prof. Rhys Green of the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge and the leading author of the report.

Some shooting groups have suggested that they do not want to prohibit a complete, and express concerns that forbidden lead shot would bring people out of activity.

Green said: “Private individuals pay a lot of money to shoot pheasants on some private goods – and people don't like to change their habits. It is a bit like wearing auto security belts or not in pubs not to smoke. Despite the good reasons to do these things, some people were strong against using regulation to achieve these changes, which are now widely accepted. The parallel to the shooting game with Lead Shotgun ammunition is striking. “

The co-author of the study, Dr. Mark Taggart, from the University of the Highlands and Islands, said: “Castor organizations carried out many questionnaire surveys when the promise was introduced in 2020, and the results indicate that many shooters were of the opinion that the time from the ammunition moved out of bleim. In contrast to what we measured both for both pheasants and auerhahn. “

A Defra spokesman said: “This government supports the sustainable shootings and is carried out in full swing with the law. We are currently assessing the advice of the health and security manager to restrict the lead in ammunition. Under certain circumstances, the use of lead shots in England is already prohibited, including some locations of special scientific interest. “