CAMPAIGNERS against animal cruelty have warned gamekeepers not to use “barbaric” snares which can kill endangered animals and domestic pets as the pheasant shooting season gets under way in Scotland.

Thousands of birds are killed between October 1 and February 1 and estate staff protect the pheasants from predators such as foxes and stoats by setting traps, which often catch endangered badgers and otters and even household cats and dogs.

The League Against Cruel Sports has renewed its call for a complete ban on snares and demanded a public inquiry into the shooting industry. The charity also warned that pheasants and partridges can be “factory farmed” and held in cages in cruel conditions ahead of the shooting season.

The League has been backed by the Scottish Greens’ environment spokesman Mark Ruskell MSP who warned there are “too many examples” of estates in Scotland which employ cruel practices.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has described critics as “anti-shooting extremists” and insisted pheasant shooting is worth millions of pounds to the Scottish economy.

The season’s official start day is October 1 but because it falls on a Sunday this year the killing won’t begin until tomorrow. It is thought that around 100,000 game birds - pheasant, partridge and grouse - are shot daily across the UK during the shooting season.

Robbie Marsland, Director of League Against Cruel Sports Scotland, said: “Our concerns about pheasant shooting go way beyond the obvious cruelty of simply shooting wildlife for sport. This is an industry which factory farms birds and employs a number of questionable tactics to 'protect' these birds to ensure a rich supply of targets for paying guns.

“Among the by-products of the commercial shooting industry is rigorous predator control methods which include the use of snares. The League has long argued for a complete ban on snares in Scotland on the grounds they are cruel, unnecessary and indiscriminate.

“In the months leading up the start of the pheasant shooting season the countryside around shooting estates will, quite literally, be littered with snares, thin wire nooses which cause horrendous pain and suffering to any animal which is unfortunate enough to get trapped, including protected species like badger and otters and domestic cats and dogs.

“While the shooting lobby will try and put a wholesome, glossy spin on their 'sport' they work hard to keep the less palatable truths about shooting, such as factory farming and snaring, hidden from the wider public.”

Philippa King, Acting CEO for the League Against Cruel Sports, estimates the shooting industry is responsible for “the factory farming of millions of pheasants”.

She said: “These birds are subjected to cruel and intensive husbandry methods and when they are released to be killed many are wounded rather than being killed outright, further adding to their suffering. With evidence mounting against the industry’s poor animal welfare practices and its links to the persecution of wildlife, the time for an independent inquiry into the UK shooting industry is long overdue.”

Mark Ruskell MSP, the Scottish Greens’ environment spokesperson, said: “There are too many examples of shooting estates intensively rearing pheasants and using barbaric and indiscriminate methods to control wildlife. The Scottish Government has already conceded that there is a case for driven grouse moors to be licensed and lowland estates need to ensure they are following good practice otherwise they may be captured by licensing too.”

BASC spokesman Garry Doolan said it is “predictable that the anti-shooting extremists have trotted out the same tired myths and propaganda” as Scotland prepares for the pheasant season.

He said critics are not being honest. “They are slinging mud in the hope some sticks and ignoring sound evidence,” said Doolan. “The truth is that managing Scotland’s iconic rural landscape for shooting has benefits for tourism, conservation, preserves marginal communities and puts healthy, nutritious food into the market. Around 97 per cent of all game meat shot makes it into the food chain.

“Shooting is worth £200 million a year to the economy in Scotland and supports the equivalent of 8,800 full-time jobs in the country. Shooting influences the management of around 4.5 million hectares of land in Scotland.

“These figures show that shooting is good for Scotland’s economy, good for jobs and good for the countryside.”