It may surprise people to know that about 55 million pheasants and red-legged partridges are reared annually in captivity before being released into the British countryside to be shot by rich people. To that vast number we can add 2.6 million mallard ducks. To animal advocate like me, game bird shooting is objectionable to put it politely.
But this vast number of birds which are shot might have to end up in vast graves, thrown away because if they cannot be processed which includes plucking the feathers from them, they will go to waste.
Except of course they have given these rich individuals the pleasure of killing them.
And because of Brexit, there is now a shortage of people to pluck the feathers from wild game birds. This may, if things are not rectified, result in wild game meat disappearing from supermarket shelves.
Butchers, chefs and game dealers are saying that the birds have become more expensive to process because there is a lack of skilled pluckers in the UK.
They historically came from Eastern Europe or from the Baltic countries such as Latvia. But since Brexit it’s been very hard to get them to come over.
There’s been a dramatic drop in the numbers. These are seasonal European workers coming over to the UK to pick crops or pluck birds.
It appears that Brits no longer want to do this kind of work. That would certainly apply in the south of the country but apparently in the North it’s a bit easier to find British workers prepared to do it.
That’s why there’s been a reliance upon European labour but it’s not coming back after Brexit.
Steve Frampton, managing director of Wild and Game an online meat retailer, said: “One of our suppliers recruited the majority of staff from Latvia but with Brexit the number has dropped by about 70%, giving them serious staffing issues.”
Frampton added that, “Many game processors are located in rural areas, where there is limited availability of potential staff. The previous availability of seasonal workers from Europe was ideal for their needs.”
The UK government believes that between 50,000 and 60,000 seasonal workers are required to ensure that game birds are processed across the UK and they almost all come from outside the country.
Many, nowadays, are recruited using the seasonal worker visa scheme. This is a temporary migration program. It was introduced in 2019. It is designed to alleviate the problems with post-Brexit hiring of labour for these businesses. The UK was and still is heavily reliant upon European workers.
Holders of these visas aren’t allowed to remain in the UK in the long term and neither can they claim benefits or bringing families.
The Migration Advisory Committee and the House of Lords horticulture sector committee are holding joint discussions about seasonal workers and the scheme. In addition, Defra has commissioned a review of these labour shortages and are due to report their findings later this year.
There you are: there’s a problem with plucking game birds in the UK because the Europeans don’t want to come over. Comment: I am an animal advocate. I would much rather that this shortage of pluckers resulted in a reduction in the number of game birds shot. In fact, I would rather the whole shooting industry is closed down but that will never happen because this Conservative government would argue that there are too many people reliant upon the business for work and it boosts the rural economy. Shame it is at the expense of shooting innocent birds.
