FEBRUARY 1 saw the end of the pheasant-shooting season.

As Animal Aid's recent Killing Fields report and undercover film revealed, some 36 million pheasants will have been blasted out of the sky over the past four months.

A further 12 million birds would have been wounded but not retrieved.

The carnage doesn't end there. An estimated five million stoats, weasels, crows and other animals - drawn by the unnaturally high pheasant numbers - are destroyed.

Animal Aid believes that the time has come for the public to speak out against the cowardly individuals who orchestrate this squalid sport.

To learn more about the reality of pheasant rearing and shooting industry, contact Animal Aid (Tel: 01732 364 546 or www.animalaid.org.uk).

YVONNE TAYLOR,

Campaigns Co-ordinator.