Almost all pheasant sold in UK contains toxic lead, study finds

Almost all pheasant meat sold in the UK contains toxic lead, a study has found a year after shooting organisations said they were phasing the material out.

Scientists from Cambridge University analysed 180 birds, and found that 179 were shot with lead.

Shooters are one year into a five-year transition to non-toxic shotgun ammunition.

Researchers bought wild-shot common pheasants that were sold by game dealers, butchers and supermarkets around the UK.

Because their labs were shut during the pandemic, the scientists dissected the pheasants in their kitchens at home.

"We took out the shot and sent it off for analysis and 99% of the ammunition we extracted was lead," Prof Debbie Pain, from Cambridge University told the BBC.

"So really that hasn't declined at all since the shooting organisations signed up to the voluntary ban."

Nine shooting organisations vowed in February 2020 to phase out lead shot and transitioning "completely" to non-toxic alternatives including steel, bismuth and tungsten.

BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham is using his animal welfare campaign group, Wild Justice, to fight against lead shot, recently sending supermarket ready meals containing game to a lab in order to have them screened for the toxic substance.

In 2019, Waitrose responded to campaigners by vowing not to sell birds shot with lead.

The decision was taken in response to figures from the Lead Ammunition Group which found that that 10,000 children were growing up in households where they were regularly eating sufficient game shot with lead ammunition to cause them “neurodevelopmental harm and other health impairments”. It also cited studies estimating that 50,000-100,000 wildfowl were killed in Britain each year because they had accidentally ingested spent gunshot, mistaking it for food.

Currently, the amount of lead in game meat sold for human consumption is not regulated by law.