Hoghton Tower Duck Slaughter

Animal welfare campaigners have blasted a duck shoot on the Hoghton Tower estate.

The North West Animal Welfare group claims the shooters left injured birds to die where they landed. A spokesperson said: "Several shot ducks landed out of the sight of the retrievers and were not picked-up immediately.

"They could have been in agony for several minutes before dying from the impact of crashing to earth and the shooters wouldn't have had a clue."

Hoghton Tower refused to comment, and referred queries to the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).

Video footage of the shoot has now been posted on the website of the North West Hunt Saboteurs Association, with a write up of the event, which claims a hunt saboteur was left to put dying birds out of their misery.

A spokesman for the North West Animal Welfare group said: "The utter callousness of the duck shooters had to be seen to be believed. They appeared more interested in killing as many ducks as possible rather than dispatching those they had injured. Duck shooting is nothing but amateur butchery."