Pheasant shooting licence not renewed at University of Wales centre after campaign against cruelty

The use of a University of Wales' residential conference centre for Pheasant shooting has been condemned by The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) who over the last year have led a campaign to have it banned. Under mounting pressure the university has not renewed the shooting licence at Gregynog Hall. This comes after it was revealed under a Freedom of Information request, that 57,000 pheasants had been released for shooting since 2013 while 160 native wild animals, including foxes and corvids, had been killed by gamekeepers to preserve the land for shooting parties. Campaigners had condemned the university for involvement in "cruel traditions", with a spokesman calling it wrong that the university had continued to "associate itself with birds being blasted out of the sky for fun". The University of Wales have said that contracts and shooting rights for Gregynog Hall have not been renewed by the university pending a review.  The League Against Cruel Sports has now urged the university to categorically state that the shooting at Gregynog Hall will stop for good.

Gregynog Hall is a large country mansion in the village of Tregynon, 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Newtown (Y Drenewydd) in Powys in mid Wales. There has been a settlement on the site since the twelfth century. Gregynog was bought by sisters Margaret and Gwendoline Davies in 1920 with the intention of establishing a centre of excellence for the arts, crafts and music which would enrich the lives of the people of Wales in the aftermath of the World War One. In 1960 Margaret Davies transferred  Gregynog to the University of Wales to be used as a conference and study centre. It sits within 750 acres of land. The ecological importance of the grounds, especially the ancient woodlands, was recognised when they were designated as a National Nature Reserve in March 2013.