Sickened Assynt locals fear their community is being stained by animal welfare breaches following an incident and eye witness accounts of mis-shot and injured deer near Quinag.
Police opened inquiries this week after a Stag suffered for five days with its jaw hanging off before being tracked and humanely despatched by a professional deer stalker at Ardvar (see above).
The incident and other community sightings of wounded deer have occurred since environmental charity John Muir Trust was granted a licence by NatureScot to shoot deer outside the legal closed season at their Quinag property.
Local crofters have described the Trust’s actions as ‘gratuitous killing’ and have called for a licence suspension.
John Muir Trust staff opted to report the incident involving the injured Stag to Police themselves after being mailed about it last weekend by the neighbouring stalker, who had put the animal out of its misery.
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Below, are some accounts of what's been occurring on the ground during the period in which the night and out-of-season authorisation granted to John Muir Trust by NatureScot has been operational. See previous stories, below:
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These accounts have been shown to the SGA by concerned community members. The SGA represents professional deer managers in the area, whose jobs are likely to be impacted by the out-of-season culls at Quinag.
Account of stalker, Michael Ross (pictured above) who humanely despatched the Stag.
The SGA has been sent accounts of other sightings of wounded deer near Quinag. The first account comes from Alasdair Allen, who was out with his teenage sons, the youngest of whom was left distressed by shootings on New Year's Eve.
"On New Years eve 2022, I was fishing with my 2 boys directly opposite Quinag on the shore below the big cutting on the causeway on the Kylestrome side. My youngest pointed out there was a shot fired from a rifle fitted with a moderator. I said yes I heard it. I know this as I grew up on a shooting estate, am a part time ghillie, and a skill at arms instructor after 22 years in HM Forces. My son said “Dad I can see a man running”. I could not see him yet but he talked me on to the person, then all 3 of us saw a young hind in severe distress on the shore line shot in the guts trying to get away, I know it was hit, by experience I've seen it before. My youngest was quite distressed watching it, we heard a second shot from the person who had been running, and as he stood up to run again I could see it was over 300yds from hind at least, he missed the hind it carried on moving, stumbling along the shore line until out of sight in to scrub on the right hand side of our view point. We then saw a second person on a quad bike a good 400m to our left making their way down towards the hind, a minute or so past we could see the quad slowly coming down the hill we then head a third shot from a rifle fitted with a moderator but could not see the person shooting, the Quad bike stopped close to where we last saw the young hind, we did not see the hind or the person shooting again after a short while, the quad and its driver were out of site behind cover, this was early afternoon on New Years eve, my youngest was upset by the whole incident and kept asking why are they doing this, and on New Years eve."
Incident 3 sent to the SGA
“About two weeks ago, a few days before the Ardvar incident that has been reported, I saw in passing what appeared to be a lame stag, just to the west of Kylesku, and visible from the road. At the time I thought it had probably been hit by a vehicle, but its movements were peculiar, something I hadn’t seen before, and I think now, in retrospect, that it was more likely to have been a bullet wound in its body, and that it was suffering from pain and discomfort from that. I didn’t think much of it as I was going on to something else, until a few days later when people were talking about what was going on with JMT.
Curiosity took me to have a look. Despite looking over quite a wide area for it, the animal had gone, but I could see where it had been lying, and I don’t think it would have got too far by itself. I am used to working with livestock, and to me, the pattern of droppings and markings on the ground suggested that an ill animal had been there for a couple of days. Obviously a deer. The animal had obviously been “tidied up” and taken away, and you could see the quad bike marks from that. The fact that we don’t really get any car accidents with deer here, and that the animal had disappeared, despite no-one locally having done this, suggests to me that this was actually a badly shot animal that was subsequently removed after a few days.
JMT and their contractors are out regularly here at the moment, and, of course, the local keepers and everyone else are out too and watching them like hawks. No poacher is going to come in to this area at the moment. It is just too hot. You wouldn’t know who you might trip over in the heather if you ventured off the road here at night.
"This wasn't the Ardvar animal as that is 3-4 miles away, and this animal wasn't going anywhere with an injury like that.”
There are genuine concerns emerging in the community about deer welfare in the area, as can be seen from the above. NatureScot has not yet said anything to those being impacted by the out-of-season culls about the licence they granted.
Michael Ross summed up frustration within the community.
John Muir Trust has denied responsibility for the wounded Stag, see:
