A LEGAL challenge to halt the release of more than 50 million gamebirds into the wild in late summer 2020 has been issued against the UK Government.

Environmental campaign group Wild Justice first challenged Defra in 2018 for failing to evaluate the impact such releases have on the British Countryside, deeming the game sector's actions an ‘ecological assault’ on the countryside.

Wild Justice argues that the released birds can have an adverse impact on predation of native flora and fauna, indirectly affecting declining species of conservation birds and transmitting diseases such as Lyme disease, and has now applied for a judicial review of what it is calling the government’s ‘failure to heed its obligations under the EU Habitats Directive,’ with the birds impacting protected sites.

Although game birds are not allowed to be directly released at Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas, they are allowed to be released nearby. The environmental campaign group believes this indirectly affects rare and protected wildlife.

DEFRA has confirmed that it would not be taking action to ensure that the release of gamebirds would be assessed and, where necessary prevented, this year as it was neither ‘reasonable nor realistic to expect measures to be taken before summer/autumn 2020’.

Wild Justice, which was set up by Chris Packham, Dr Ruth Tingay and Dr Mark Avery last year, has replied that it has no other option than to issue legal proceedings.

“The lack of monitoring and regulation of gamebird releases is staggering,” said Dr Tingay. “The government doesn’t seem to know or care how many are released each year and even the figure of 60 million gamebirds may well be an underestimate. Incredibly, there is nothing to stop the shooting industry releasing twice as many gamebirds next year. This has to stop, and proper regulation brought in,” she urged.

Only 30% of recreational game birds are shot, killed and retrieved. The others die of other causes and provide winter food for scavengers such as foxes, carrion crows and rats, whose populations remain artificially high as a result. Conservationists are concerned that these scavengers will eat more vulnerable species such as curlews and lapwings nesting at nearby nature sites.

Dr Avery added: “These non-native gamebirds go around gobbling up insects, other invertebrates and even snakes and lizards. They peck at vegetation, their droppings fertilise sensitive habitats which no farmer would be allowed to fertilise, and they provide prey and carrion that swell the populations of predators that then go on to prey on other threatened species,” he explained. “This is a very serious ecological assault on the countryside which government is failing to assess and regulate.”

A spokesman for Scotland's gamekeepers said that they were well aware of this 'England-focused' campaign, but were keeping a weather eye out for any 'escalation'.