Deer management best left to hunt
DURING the debates leading up to the ban on hunting with hounds the Exmoor National Park Authority made the following statement:
"Should legislation be introduced to ban hunting with hounds, it is essential that adequate arrangements are in place to ensure the continued conservation and management of the red deer herds on Exmoor."
Such arrangements have not been put in place and the sad death of the largest red deer on Exmoor highlights the fact that in the wake of the hunting ban there are a growing number of trophy hunters on Exmoor.
Trophy hunters are interested in a fine head and set of antlers which can sell for up to £1,000.
Proper deer management requires that a correct balance of hinds and stags is taken out in order to ensure a good genetic profile and herd health.
It is very sad that the MPs who voted through the Hunting Act had no interest in wildlife management but were obsessed with only one form of killing animals for sport.
This can be seen by a statement by then Defra minister and Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw: "The management of wildlife on private land is primarily a matter for the relevant landowner and not the Government."
Before the Hunting Act, many landowners left deer management to the hunt who managed them in a co-ordinated and structured manner to ensure the long-term health and quality of the herd.
This informal system is now in danger of breaking down, and if deer management is left to individual landowners then the finest herd of red deer in the UK will suffer.
Giles Bradshaw
Rose Ash, Devon
3 Comments
by Lynsey, Copplestone
Thursday, November 04 2010, 8:28PM
“Only Mr Bradshaw could use the death of a creature to justify his own blood lust. Just when I thought he'd scraped the bottom of very last barrel.
This doesn't surprise me though. There is a train of thought that if the "demonising the wildlife" campaign, doesn't work on the general public to soften them up for repealing the ban on hunting with dogs. There would then come the "hunting is better, look what happens to these poor animals if we don't hunt them" campaign.”
by FW Kirkham, Devon
Thursday, October 28 2010, 4:31PM
“Although I am not much in favour of stag hunting I have to agree with most of what Giles Bradshaw says. Before the hunting ban came in I made a point in a national newspaper very similar to the one Giles quotes from the Exmoor National Park official. I also made the point that Giles makes that the Hunt made efforts to select out old and unhealthy stags and that a similar function would need to be carried out by licensed marksmen following a hunting ban. In my letter I warned that if an effort wasn't made to coordinate such an activity landowners would take deer control more into their own hands with unfortunate results - although the unfortunate results I envisaged were more along the lines of indiscriminate killing, possibly with inappropriate firearms.”
by NORMAN BRYANT, west sussex
Thursday, October 28 2010, 12:39PM
“An excellent article, the Hunting Ban was forced through and lets face it, this was against a group of people and had very little to do with the care of wild animals, if this ban was not in force there is every chance that the Emperor would still be alive”