Madonna's game delivery

Music

13:30 04 September 2006

Madonna has angered animal rights campaigners by importing baby pheasants from France for the shooting season.

The 'Hung Up' singer purchased 1,000 chicks to be raised alongside a further 31,000 birds she brought in from Wales, on her 1,200-acre Wiltshire estate.

Although both Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie have given up shooting, they plan to open their estate to clients paying up to £10,000 a day when the season starts on October 1.

The couple's celebrity friends Brad Pitt and 'X-Men: The Last Stand' star Vinnie Jones - who taught Madonna how to shoot - are also regular guests on hunts.

The pheasants cost as little as 70p each, and animal welfare groups claim they are hatched in battery farm environments for the sole purpose of being shooting targets.

Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, said: "Shame on Madonna. She thinks that when she puts on her plus fours she is part of landed gentry.

"But this is not in harmony with nature. It is the production of factory birds to provide a shooting gallery."

A spokeswoman for Madonna said: "Both Madonna and Guy have stopped shooting. We can confirm that the estate got 1,000 birds from France as an experiment this year but we won't be doing it again."

(C) BANG Media International