SGA Vice Chairman Peter Fraser’s heartfelt plea over the annual FLS deer cull made headlines in several national newspapers today.
As stated, the SGA has been anonymously contacted both by contractors and ex FLS rangers, over the last 3 years, who have disagreed with this FLS central office policy.
Such views have continued to be expressed since yesterday’s story (see below the Herald story).
One commentator, a former FLS ranger, posted about ‘rather inhumane contempt for deer’ he had experienced from senior management, adding his personal view that ‘100%’ calves would be orphaned by the decision to cull so early in the lives of youngsters (see Scotsman coverage, below).
In some FLS replies to Mr Fraser, they state that no one had reported to them that calves or fawns had suffered as a result of the policy.
Given that people are being paid, this is, in itself, not surprising (see coverage in The National, below).
Additionally, high high numbers of protected badgers and foxes will remove a fallen carcass very quickly, if an animal has starved (see Times coverage, below).
When the SGA asked FLS, through FOI, why one of the grid references for a culled animal was on the open hill and not on their own property, they said that sometimes ‘mistakes’ could be made inputting the grid references into their database.
The SGA suspects- but cannot prove- that the authorisation is being used on the open hill (see Courier coverage, below).
FLS also acknowledged, by FOI, that they did not record whether the adults and juveniles were matched by family, on their wildlife management database.
The SGA will continue to try to bring to light the many issues surrounding the controversial annual September deer cull in Scotland's public forests (see Telegraph coverage, below).
*There are other cost effective models for managing Scotland's deer resource, as a national asset to be proud of.
To read the SGA's vision of deer management in Scotland, visit: https://www.scottishgamekeepers.co.uk/deer-vision/
Want to read what the London Evening Standard thought about the September deer cull? Click here:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/environment/forestry-forest-b1022026.html
