I was reading an article in the shooting press today about the League Against Cruel Sports, and their deer sanctury. I believe it is down in Devon but I'm not sure.

The herd has been diagnosed as having TB, and a local stalker allerted the authorities to a potential problem after discovering a number of sick animals over the last year. Apparently nearly 100 sick animals...

It seems that DEFRA have slammed the LACS for improper management of the herd and may enforce a management policy to include stalking on the land!!! What a poke in the eye!!!

As irrefutable as we all know it is, but shooting aids the wellbeing of the enviroment

I wonder whether an event like this will help us in the political arena though, Call me a cynic but I doubt it...

Take a look at [URL=www.exmoor.org.uk/beardsall.htm] sanctuary donated by Paul/linda Mcartney. Baronsdown, Dulverton, Somerset.

Thanks for that Trans,

With my main Shooting being part of a dairy farm, I can fully appreciate how terrifying it is for farmers with livestock to have potential TB cases. The problem here is that LACS will never give a straight answer or deal with the problem swiftly if it means shooting a dozen deer to autopsy... even if it is for the better of the herd.

I had a situation a couple of months ago, when does were out of season, and we were looking for a few prickets for the BBQ season. On my way to the highseat I put a doe out of the shaw where the seat was situated. she made her way accross the field into the main wood, (about 150yds away), but had a serious limp, and a growth on her front left leg. Yu could see the growth with the naked eye.

Once in the seat I had to decide if I was going to shoot her if she showed. She never came out and I doubt I would have shot if she had, even though this was an animal in need of culling... Potentially losing my FAC and my ability to shoot was not a risk I was willing to take.

Does anyone know where the law stand on such situations?

FB

Good question. I know what the humane thing to do is. Do you have the book "Deer - Law and Liabilities"?

Fallow Buck,

Although I don't know the wording of the Law, I believe you are allowed to put an out of season beast down if it is suffering. I think this law was primarily framed to deal with accidents such a road injuries or deer caught up in fences, but i believe it would also include cases such as yours, but i will have to double checjh in my edition of "Law and Liabilities" to be sure. I have culled a three legged Roe Doe in the buck season and would do so again regardless of the letter of the law. In your case, it might become interesting if after the shot the police became involved and a vet gave his opinion that the injury was minor, the deer was not suffering and would have probably recovered. This is why is pays to have legal insurance of one sort or another or carry a bit of rusty barbed wire!

Regards,

Pete

Interesting problem.
A friend of mine had theis problem two times and he had opposite behaviour. The first time in Hungary he was stalking a roe deer with the local hunter and discovered a dying roe cow. My friend proposed to finish the cow but the companion refused. I don't remember which was the explanation for the refusal.
The second time, instead, my friend refused to shoot to a cub after he had kill the roe deer cow, even if the companion invited him repeatedly to kill also the too young to survive cub.
I did not understand this fact, but I never had occasion to ask him why.
IMHO I think that a sick animal should be always culled, in any season.
A recognized sanitary culling is not hunt and should not be prosecuted.
bye