to be shocked someone hung dead pheasant on my front gate

[annoyednow]

Opened my front gate around 10minutes ago to let cat in and there was something hanging on the front gate. I am in pj's, so husband went out and there was a dead pheasant hanging from string from our front gate. We live in London.

I don't know if it was some prank by kids or something sinister.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

There are a fair few pheasants living wild, though, given how many of them decide to end it all by flinging themselves in front of my car when I visit my parents (In my defence, I've only actually hit two. But I see them all over the place (admittedly not in London)). Unless I am secretly some kind of pheasant lord and mystically attracting them from all over the UK there must be quite a few that don't attempt to sacrifice themselves to me.

It's quite endearing to see how trusting a majority of MNetters are. I wouldn't think a dead animal on my gate is a gift and then roast it the next day. It's just odd... Especially if it's never happened before. I don't believe anyone would cook something dumped on their doorstep.

I definitely wouldn't eat it.

But I would still assume it was a misplaced gift and not something from a 'voodoo gang'

A colleague promised me a brace of pheasants from a weekend shoot. I didn't really want them but I didn't say no.

He turned up with two really sorry-looking and smelly birds. It had been warm and he'd kept them festering in the boot of his car all weekend. By Monday they stank so much that he tied them to the door handle and drove down the motorway with them flapping in the wind.

I binned them behind his back.

voodoo... gangs

sniggers

Love how the ad at the top of this thread is for the RSPB

cutted beaters don't generally collect the birds. That's what gun dogs are for.

spare shooting season runs from around now till Jan/Feb time I think. So there will be multiple shoots at various places most weekends. After this the birds lucky enough to have survived are left for next season.

At the moment to get up our lane, you have to drive really slowly as it is blocked by hundreds of pheasants, if you opened your car door, you could pick up as many as you like.

I'm really shocked how many people don't realise about hung pheasants and how much it improves them.

Voodoo Pheasant- version of jimi Hendrix classic by Made in Chelsea... It could be Xmas number one

What, a cross between The Stones' Voodoo Lounge tour and The Pheasantry on the Kings Road, Chelsea?

Great idea, SSS!

sparecharge that was a typical day's shoot. It happens about 10 - 12 times over the winter.
Forrin it depends how well trained the dogs are

All a pile of pretentious crap anyway.

Is the Pheasantry still called that? I thought it had been turned into a Pizza Express.

And yes, spike I was thinking about Voodoo Chilli too

Could be that someone bought/shot/was gifted a brace but only had freezer space for 1 bird, so left the other one hanging for someone else to take.

Sunday is traditionally a shooting day, they were most likely on their way home from a day out.

Oh dear CuttedUpPear, what a shame your only experience of shooting has been with such a cruel and outdated practice.

We have young pheasants and partridges that go into huge outdoor pens, mostly within a wood where there is lots of natural cover and shelter.

They are fed and watered daily by one or two keepers, with minimum contact.

They are gradually let out to wander round the farm at their leisure. The gates are left open on the runs and they can come and go as they please. To start with they are dogged back in of an evening; that is, a keeper will walk round the outside of the wood with a dog and head them back to the pen.

When they are fully grown they are left to roam the farm. They are still being fed corn on a daily basis. Come shoot day they will fly naturally. Our keeper has been on our farm for decades and he knows where the birds like to fly. Our cover and woods are situated where the birds will fly to. He knows exactly where to send the beaters and stand the guns to get the best flush and shot.

Yes shooting may be harsh but so is being electrocuted or having your throat cut. Our birds are free range and organically fed, as I said. I have no qualms whatsoever about eating them. I am a meat eater and it usually has to be dead first. Yes I eat chicken but I know exactly what farm it's come from thanks to our excellent local butcher.

Forrin it depends how well trained the dogs are

Our dogs are very well trained, thank you. We have regular beaters, regular guns and their dogs are all brilliant. They wouldn't come if they weren't, they'd be a bloody nuisance.

SNORT at "it's a gift" - where do you lot live?

I live in inner city Yorkshire in student-ville. If there was a dead pheasant hanging on my gate I'd think someone had tried to fuck it for a laugh to impress their mates.

It's an old Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the pheasants.

[Nods conspiratorially.]

Ilove I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks a shoot is barbaric. I'd much rather eat a pheasant than a hormone injected battery chicken. But that's a whole other thread.

I'm 30 miles from London so not far out. We regularly come home to items on the door step. I did find it strange at first but quite happy for the neighbours to share their surplus fruit and veg.

"Is the Pheasantry still called that? I thought it had been turned into a Pizza Express."

Sadly, yes, it is now a Pizza Express. Similarly, Kettners in Soho is now (or was the last time I was in the area) a Pizza Express.

like a midsommer murder plot.

Oh dear, I regularly leave pheasant, rabbit, pigeon, etc on peoples gates or in porch etc. Dh shoots them and often ill leave veg, jams etc as well. No voodoo intended, just trying to be nice!

fruola I used to go to the Pheasantry and I had my hen night at Kettners where the pianist played

Those were the days, eh, limited?

yellow you're more than welcome to leave your rabbits here.