Toxic lead ammunition banned to protect Britain’s countryside
PRESS RELEASE FROM DEFRA, 10 JULY 2025: Toxic lead ammunition banned to protect Britain’s countryside Red kites and white-tailed eagles will receive greater protection thanks to new restrictions on the use of lead in ammunition, Environment Minister Emma Hardy announced today (Thursday 10 July 2025). To protect iconic British wildlife and clean up the nation’s […]
Driven grouse shooting – what it is and why it must be banned.
Driven grouse shooting is a hobby – it is killing wildlife for fun – which takes place in the uplands of Britain
The RSPB on grouse shooting
We are often asked why the RSPB does not support our petition (and previous ones) to ban driven grouse shooting…
Our letter to Defra about lead ammunition
At the end of 2024 Wild Justice wrote to Steve Reed MP, the Secretary of State (SoS) for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about lead ammunition.
Leaden progress
It looks as though we are moving, oh so slowly, towards the removal of lead ammunition from most of UK shooting.
Press Release: Wild Justice lodges complaint about Waitrose and Marks & Spencer selling gamebirds contaminated with toxic lead shot
Maximum legal lead levels are set for meats such as beef, pork, chicken etc. but not, utterly bizarrely, for game meat, even though the Food Standards Agency warns that…
Waitrose still selling gamebirds contaminated with toxic lead shot, despite telling customers it only stocks lead-free gamebirds
Lead is a poison and has been removed from many formerly common uses such as for water pipes and fishing weights, and in petrol and paints. But it is still legal to use lead ammunition to shoot gamebirds in the UK such as Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge and Red Grouse. Maximum lead levels are […]
Game meat with high lead levels still being sold
BACKGROUND Lead is a poison and has been removed from many formerly common uses such as for water pipes and fishing weights, and in petrol and paints. But it is still legal to use lead ammunition to shoot gamebirds such as Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge and Red Grouse (amongst others). Maximum lead levels are […]
Phasing out toxic lead voluntarily STILL isn’t working…
In February last year we shared news of a study showing that voluntary phasing out of lead ammunition by the shooting industry isn’t working. Twelve months later, and we can report that not much has changed – phasing out use of lead shot STILL isn’t working. Wild Justice has spoken about many times about lead contamination […]
Please respond to a public consultation on lead ammunition
Today we are asking you, please, to respond to a consultation by the Health and Safety Executive on the use of lead ammunition. This is an issue on which Wild Justice has been very active. Below we have set out some background information on the issue, as well as some guidance on how you might […]
A dog’s dinner: high levels of toxic lead found in UK dog food.
Would you feed your dog something that wasn’t safe for yourself? Lead is a heavy issue. Wild Justice has campaigned on lead levels in food since we started. Whilst our previous investigations have analysed lead levels in game meat sold for human consumption on supermarket shelves, we’re now looking at how lead gets into the […]
Are lead levels falling in game meat?
Wild Justice has led the way in testing game meat (Pheasant, partridge (unknown species) and Woodpigeon) that has been on sale in supermarkets, online and in independent butchers and game dealers over the last three shooting seasons and reporting on the levels of lead found in that meat. We have analysed (or, more correctly, had […]