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Trust 'must ban deer hunting'

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Published Date: 04 November 2006
THE League Against Cruel Sports is calling on the National Trust to approve a total ban on killing injured deer on its land.
In 1997, the trust banned deerhunting on its land, but trustees said hunters should be allowed to follow and kill the deer.

Douglas Batchelor, League Against Cruel Sports chief executive and member of the National Trust, will propose a resolution reaffirming the total ban on hunters at the trust's AGM.



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  • Last Updated: 04 November 2006 10:38 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Hunting
 
1

Rob me blind,

04/11/2006 14:48:53

Get a grip they need hunting to control the number of deer out there. Do any of these do-gooders actually live in the country or are they all townies. Have they ever seen the amount of damage a herd of deer can do.

The Trust have a responsibility to manage the land and what ever is on that land so just let them get on with it. For hundreds of years the herds have been managed by either culls or by hunting / poaching this is the way they have been managed. Maybe we should just let all these animals get on with it and see what happens when they are dying of starvation or even better farmers are driven out of business because of crop damage. Just give it a rest and let these things happen as the need to or we will have nothing to hand over to our kids.

2

Paul Voltiare,

04/11/2006 16:32:29

if these brave killers like firing guns so much, let them join the army - oh, of course they won't do that 'cos there's a chance they will be fired back at.

3

,

04/11/2006 17:36:41
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 146771, Article id was mapped to record!
4

Dominic,

Jedburgh, Borders 04/11/2006 18:23:03

What will this organisation/its followers think of next.

A deer that has been shot but not killed will die of its injuries therefore it is more humane to finish it off properly.

I hope the National Trust controls its deer numbers in a good fashion or people out enjoying a good walk will come across 100s of dead deer through starvasion and little or no fauna to talk about due to the over grazing by these animals if not managed properly.

5

Steven,

Kent 04/11/2006 18:47:47

The responses here are unbelievable. No one, including the League Against Cruel Sports, has disputed the need for deer population management. The argument is about whether you think the best people to do that are those who delight in inflicting extreme cruelty, injury and suffering on deer by chasing them with hounds, until they die from exhaustion, or can no longer continue, when they are knifed or shot, then ritually dismembered. Some of the pre-ban video footage of stag hunts is enough to make you cry - handsome animals enduring the most appalling torment so a small number of depraved individuals can take pleasure in it. Stag-hunting with hounds is not humane population management: it is pure sadism, of a form that was banned in Scotland long before in England - to no detriment whatsoever to stag populations.

6

,

04/11/2006 18:55:18
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 146852, Article id was mapped to record!
7

Doreen,

Glasgow 04/11/2006 19:10:55

Stag hunting is not humane, it is cruelty beyond belief and WICKED to chase a terrified animal into exhaustion before you shoot it, not necessarily kill it but hope to chase it a wee bit more because you get a sick kick out of it. Stop portraying hunters as skilled gentry these people are vicious smug self important blow-hards. And by the way just because you live in the country doesnt mean you own it, "the real country livers have been safe guarding it for milleniums" aye right you just go on getting your jollies out of torturing and butchering animals, I suppose the badger baiters would say the same thing eh, or the fox hunters who watch a living creature being torn apart alive. Naw Kenneth the times they are a changing deal with it.

8

Laird o' Stockaree,

04/11/2006 20:05:54

Simple fact is that in this so called western "civilisation"
we should be learning to live with nature not destroy it for sport. None of us needs to hunt for food anymore if you want to po off at something make it inanimate.
The large part of the animal kingdom which we don't require for food has a right to exist and this world will
be a poorer place without them. They are very probably the "meek" who shall inherit this earth from us as we are well on the way to self extinction by various means

9

,

04/11/2006 20:50:30
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 146965, Article id was mapped to record!
10

,

04/11/2006 21:04:38
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 146975, Article id was mapped to record!
11

Kit Davidson, Animal Aid,

Wales 04/11/2006 21:20:24

The vote has now been taken. 20K votes opposed the motion. 12.7K voted for the motion. So now deer that are being pursued for the pleasure of the hunters will become sick and wounded when they enter National Trust land. The pursuit may continue on those terms. The 12.7K conscientious objectors must withdraw their direct debits in favour of the National Trust and vote with their feet. The Trusts principles will be strained by the diminution of its bank roll and it should turn to the Countryside Alliance for its support in future.

12

linplum,

Cumberland!!! 04/11/2006 21:32:09

SORRY ARTHUR but just for you i will take my caps lock off.
SORRY I always use it. no offence intended.
and you made my intended point that if we could all live with nature then we would not have to control it. by what ever methods.
but as we all know now humans have to control everything including themselves. sometimes i must add on the case of humans for the good!
But as far as possile we should leave nature alone.
and i'm sorry you feel you have to carry the can for things you couldn't control in the past.
don't knock yourself to much.
help others see the error's of interfering. and your already getting there.

13

Alan,

Cornwall 05/11/2006 00:26:57

The National Trust now appears to have adopted a policy which is not just stupid and inhumane but also fraught legally. It is widely held that the deer hunts that operate around NT land in the West Country have been acting illegally by pursuing deer with relays of two dogs at a time rather than shooting them as soon as they are flushed from cover, as the law requires. The responsible Minister has made clear his belief that this is illegal but, for reasons best known to themselves, the Police/CPS have failed to bring charges - until very recently. The law also applies to landowners who allow hunts to operate illegally on their land. Unless the NT actively prevent hunts from behaving the way they have been doing up till now when they pursue supposedly sick/injured deer on to their land, they will be culpable. Judging by their current permissive attitude, they are either can't or won't do that. The League Against Cruel Sports has already brought a successful prosecution against the Exmoor Foxhounds and, I'm sure, will not now hesitate to prosecute the Trust if they feel they have a case.
The resultant bad publicity would be a PR disaster for the NT. They need to keep the hunts - who are, as I have many times witnessed, nothing more than a bunch of mounted sadists - off their land altogether, and deal with sick/injured deer in the proper and humane manner, by employing professional stalkers with rifles. This has, of course, long been the method employed in the more civilised Scotland, where pursuing deer with dogs has been banned for many years.

14

linplum,

Cumberland!!! 05/11/2006 03:38:54

Here! here"

15

Angus,

Balloch 05/11/2006 19:02:18

Deer do not need "managed" or "controlled". It is the shooting estates that are responsible for the increase in numbers to make their businesses viable.

If shooting was banned tomorrow, there would be a rise in deer population in the short term but like all other mammals the population would would adjuct over time in accordance with their habitat.

Killing them to protect them from starvation is nonsense. There's plenty of food for them; it's supporting the increased population. All wildlife can be subject to food shortages which reduces the fecundity rate and as the older and weaker die first increases the strength of the gene pool.

Ask yourself this! If the hunters are so concerned about wildlife dying why do they not hunt other species like small birds that die off in vast numbers?
The answer is they're not worth hunting.

The National Trust should ban all shooting.

16

Jock H. the Republic of Scotland,

denver, colorado, usa 05/11/2006 22:21:00

as we say over here, that if you give a rabbit a gun, you won't see a hunter in the woods, these big hero's might get hurt by the rabbit shooting back at them, usually people who hurt defencless animals for pleasure turn out to be serial killers, a proven point, just food for thought ,,,,,,,,,,,,


 

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