Animal Welfare Bill

My Lords, I declare an enormous interest in that I run a shoot 10 days a year, and we put down quite a large number of birds. The last outbreak of Newcastle disease was about a mile and a half from where I live. I am pretty certain, although I would not go to the stake for it, that the outbreak occurred after six week-old poults had been bought because, if I remember rightly, it was in July. It was dealt with immensely efficiently by the landowner, his keeper and Defra, and the disease did not spread. Well done Defra—one should give credit where it is due. I have heard the story about pheasants being buried; it has been around for a very long time. I am pretty certain it is an urban myth. Someone says, ““I wonder if they do”” and by teatime it has become, ““I know the chap who did it””. I have heard that story for 10 years now and have seen no evidence, although I know you cannot prove a negative. It is certainly true that the price of pheasants has gone through the floor. I took over my father’s shoot 30 years ago; we got £1 for each pheasant in the middle of the season then, and we still get £1 each, if we are lucky, in the middle of the season. That is due to the fact that the bags have increased, as the noble Lord says. But I think that the majority of people rear their pheasants as I do. The laying pens are a big area, and bushes are brought in for the birds to hide under. There is protection from, funnily enough, sparrow hawks; it is perfectly legal, they are scared away with netting. It is in everybody’s interests that the laying pens are as decently run as possible and free of disease. If there is proved to be a need for regulations for people using battery methods, I can see nothing wrong with that. If we want to go on running shoots, we have to do it properly and in a way that everybody can approve. If the need is shown to be there, I see nothing wrong in having regulations for minimum standards.