Guilty: Ashley Game Farm convicted of multiple poisoning offences

Ashley Game Farm Ltd fined £40,000, Company Director fined £1,500

The discovery of a poisoned Buzzard next to a poisoned bait by a member of the public led to the search of a Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge breeding farm in Chulmleigh, Devon conducted by Devon and Cornwall Police in March 2021.

A number of pesticide offences were discovered including the presence of Carbofuran, the same highly toxic chemical found on the poison bait that had killed the Buzzard.

On 18 July 2024 after pleading guilty to multiple pesticide offences Ashley Game Farm Ltd was ordered to pay £40,000 in fines and the company’s Director, Christopher Hodgson, was fined £1,500.

Toxicology Tests

In October 2020, a member of the public found a dead Common Buzzard lying on top of a pheasant carcass by a pheasant release pen, near Hollocombe in Devon, and reported it to Devon and Cornwall Police. Birds of prey (or raptors) are – without exception – protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which makes it illegal to shoot, poison or trap any species of bird of prey (see our page on Birds of Prey and the Law).

The two birds and a second dead pheasant found nearby were submitted by the police to the Government’s Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS) for examination and toxicology testing. Meat found in the Buzzard’s beak and both pheasant carcasses tested positive for Carbofuran. This evidence confirmed that the Buzzard had died as a result of feeding on the illegally placed poison baits.

In March 2021, following the toxicology results, a search of land, buildings and vehicles took place at Ashley Game Farm in Chulmleigh, Devon. During the search significant amounts of prohibited and unauthorised pesticides and veterinary medicines were found. A forensic search of two vehicles detected traces of  Carbofuran – the same banned pesticide found on the pheasant carcasses and which had caused the Buzzard’s death.

Photo by RSPB Investigations

Ashley Game Farm and the charges

Ashley Game Farm is a member of the Game Farmers Association which is “dedicated to the production of quality gamebirds for the UK shooting industry”. On its website it claims to be “one of the few remaining traditional game bird breeding farms left in the country”.

What might ‘traditional’ mean?

On 18 July 2024 at Exeter Magistrates Court, Ashley Game Farm and the Director of the company were charged with the following offences:

1. On or before 26/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, namely stored a plant protection product, namely Rivett MAPP 11300, without a valid authorisation or permission granted in accordance with Retained EU Regulation 1107/2009.  Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.

2. Between 01/10/2020 and 27/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, used a plant protection product, namely Carbofuran, in contravention of Article 28 (1) of Retained EU Regs 1107/2009.  Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.

3. On or before 26/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, used a Biocidal product, namely Lodi’s Sapphire Grain otherwise in accordance with the terms and conditions of its authorisation under Article 22 (1) and the labelling and packaging requirements of Article 69.  Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.

4. On or before 26/03/2021 at Chulmleigh contravened a requirement imposed by a prohibition notice served under section 22 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in that used a Biocidal product, namely Mole Valley Farmers Difenacoum Cut Wheat Rat Bait without authorisation being in force allowing for its use.  Contrary to sections 22 and 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

5. On or before 26/03/2021 at Chulmleigh in the county of Devon possessed an unauthorised veterinary medicinal product, namely possessed an unauthorised veterinary medical product, namely Dimetridazole (DMZ).  Contrary to regulations 26(1), 43(r) and 44(1) of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

Christopher Hodgson, Director of Ashley Game Farm:

1. On or before 26/03/2021 at being a Director of Ashley Game Farm Limited, a body corporate who had committed an offence, stored a plant protection product, namely Rivett MAPP 11300, without a valid authorisation or permission granted in accordance with Retained EU Regulation 1107/2009 and the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or attributable to the neglect of Christopher Hodgson. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.

Yep, sounds like this purveyor of death is indeed keeping at least one of shooting’s traditions – persecuting birds of prey – well and truly alive…

• Ashley Game Farm Ltd pleaded guilty to all five charges and was ordered to pay £40,000 in fines and £590 in costs. Christopher Hodgson pleaded guilty to the one offence and was ordered to pay £1,500 in fines and £150 in costs.

What is Carbofuran?

Carbofuran was just one of several products ‘retained’ and used illegally on the ‘farm’, but it is perhaps the most notorious of them. As we explain on our Protectors of the Wild page ‘Poisoning/poisoned baits and the Law‘, Carbofuran is a highly toxic insecticide and is known to be particularly toxic to birds: in its blue granular form, a single grain will kill a bird. Human exposure to Carbofuran can cause weakness, sweating, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and blurred vision. Higher levels can cause muscle twitching, loss of coordination, and may cause breathing to stop. It was banned in the UK in 2001 (and is banned in Canada, Sri Lanka, and throughout the European Union).

For many years Carbofuran was considered the ‘gamekeepers poison of choice’, although in the last few years it has perhaps been overtaken by Bendiocarb. In 2010 police and the RSPB found a 10kg sack of Carbofuran hidden in a locked shed on Skibo Estate after investigating the deaths of three Golden Eagles. Fiscal depute Ian Smith said at the time that this was the largest find of any illegal poison in the UK, adding that “10kg is sufficient to wipe out the entire Scottish Golden Eagle and Red Kite populations several times over”.

Poisons like Carofuran, Bendiocarb, and Brodifacoum are still widely used on (some) shooting estates to illegally kill birds of prey.

The 2021 RSPB Birdcrime report noted 36 poisonings in the UK (victims included 12 Buzzards, 10 Red Kites, two Peregrines, one Golden Eagle, and one White-tailed Eagle), and there have been 64 confirmed incidents of abuse of banned or highly toxic chemicals to target birds of prey in Northern Ireland alone since 2009. Poisoning is silent compared with shooting and also less labour intensive – no need to hide and wait for a bird of prey to return, just lay the bait, walk away, and come back to check every so often. Carbofuran itself accounted for almost one-third of all bird of prey persecution poisoning incidents in England between 2018 and 2022.

Poisoned Red Kite. North Yorkshire Police

Recognise, Record, Report

Mark Thomas, the RSPB’s highly-respected Head of Investigations UK, said about this case:

 “Yet again the discovery a dead bird of prey and poisoned baits leads to the detection of lethal banned poisons. This is the latest example of highly toxic pesticides being stored and used illegally in connection with the gamebird industry.”

Mark is probably better placed than anyone else in the country to know the full extent of persecution like this. It’s been noticeable that in the last few years he (and the RSPB) has been increasingly unafraid to lay the blame for these offences squarely where it belongs: on the massive and disgraceful shooting industry, an industry that has normalised the mass shooting of what it calls ‘gamebirds’ and still thinks it can get away with the persecution of raptors.

Protect the Wild recently outlined the steps we will be taking to fight back:

• First up we are now very close to launching our new initiative bloodbusiness.info, a community-driven, searchable database of the businesses that support shooting (and hunting with hounds). Ashley Game Farm will be on there of course…

• We are planning a new set of information (pages and Substack posts) looking at the intensive rearing of pheasants and partridges in so-called ‘game farms’, based around ‘From Egg to Gun’.

• To show even more vividly how the bird shooting industry is set up and operates, we are right now discussing investigation options which will take us all into the industry’s dark heart.

• Following our Secret Monitor post on Devon’s Endsleigh Shoot (which has been viewed 45k times now!) we have published another Secret Monitor post featuring footage of Linhope partridge shoot in Northumberland National Park. The sheer scale of the operation and the number of birds and shooters involved is genuinely shocking.

• We’ve commissioned brilliant animator Ben at Firelily Studios to create an animation on the ‘Inglorious 12th’, looking at what really goes into the annual slaughter-fest that takes place on grouse moors from August 12th onwards. Ben’s remarkable animations for Protect the Wild have been viewed more than 35 million times already!

• We’re planning more Substack posts like the recent one on Stink Pits, which has already been viewed 40k times. Our Substack newsletters go out to more than 80k subscribers – it’s a fantastic tool to reach a huge audience.

• We are co-sponsors (with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Wild Justice) of Action for Wildlife Day, an event at Carsington Water organised by Hen Harrier Action. Taking place on 10 August we will be bringing our message of ‘empowering people to protect British wildlife’ into the Peak District – and of course explaining why we want to do everything we can to end the bird shooting industry.

• And of course throughout the year we will be bolstering support for monitors and other groups that are out looking into shoots (and hunts of course) through our Protecting the Wild Support Network and Equipment Fund. Drones, bodycams, trail cams, camcorders – if we can help you be more effective in the field, we will do our very best to supply you with what you need.

In the meantime, it is vital to note that it was the observations and reporting by an unnamed member of the public that led to the conviction of Ashley Game Farm and its Director.

We continually update our Protectors of the Wild pages which are designed to help us all become ‘eyes in the field’ by knowing how to ‘Recognise, Record, and Report’ wildlife crime. We can have a huge impact on wildlife criminals just by knowing what to look out for and how to react.

• And as we say on those pages, if you find a dead or injured bird of prey in suspicious circumstances DO NOT TOUCH the bird with bare hands, take photos if you can, call the police on 101 and fill in the RSPB’s online reporting form HERE.

• If you have information about anyone killing birds of prey which you wish to report anonymously, call the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.

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