750,000 deer to be culled - thanks bunny huggers!

[British Red]

Back in 2004 when they passed the new "game handling regulations", the farm I was living on at the time stopped culling deer for meat. It would have cost them over £20,000 to create all the infrastructure necessary to satisfy the (stupid towny bunny hugger) regulations to sell on the venison - as they had been doing since the 1800s. So the deer were left to breed up.

Guess what? We now have three quarters of a million deer excess to the sustainable population

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21688447

When will ignorant townies just leave rural affairs to people who actually understand them?

Instead of a sustainable harvest of healthy meat year on year, we now need to kill half the deer in Britain at the taxpayers expense because the "food safety" and "animal rights" brigades made it illegal for small landowners to manage deer populations and pass on the venison as gifts or to the local game butcher (unless they spent a fortune on infrastructure)

Brilliant - way to go guys - a deer management system that has worked since Norman times destroyed in a decade by busybodies who know less than nothing about managing wildlife.

Idiots

[/rant]

 

[andybysea]

What are/will they do with all the meat from those culled Red? surely they wont waste it?

 

[Bushwhacker]

I've been having a debate/argument all afternoon regarding the subject. Most of the comments made me think there's no hope for this country.

 

[British Red]

What are/will they do with all the meat from those culled Red? surely they wont waste it?

They won't be allowed to sell it without meeting all the necessary regs - about 20 grand a site. I could go to jail for evening giving away a culled deer. If we are lucky it'll go for dog meat - most likely landfill though.

Thats what happens when townies regulate country sports!

 

[greensurfingbear]

When will ignorant townies just leave rural affairs to people who actually understand them?

Having worked on a fair few farms and estates I can honestly say that there are a fair few rural folk who are pretty clueless too

I agree with you in general though Red the red tape and top down interfering has made a crazy state of affairs

Off the wall idea, all we need to do is release a few top end predators and lower human population and we'd be sorted.

 

[nuggets]

just caught the tale end on the `news` today !! The cull is to ease competition on `other` habitat user`s ?????????????




What other grazing animals are they displacing ???? Rabbits ??? What a load of crock

 

[Llwyd]

The control of food is the control of people. Follow the money.

 

[Gaudette]

I said over Xmas this would have to happen. The sheer stupidity of the situation is astounding.
Reading your rant out really loud is good therapy. Thanks Red for putting it so well.

 

[Goatboy]

What are/will they do with all the meat from those culled Red? surely they wont waste it?

I like your faith in society that you think they won't waste all that meat.
Bulldozers and funeral pyres. Some will get sold but a lot'll go to waste. Remember speaking to legendary keeper Ronnie Rose about how sickened he was killing deer from 'copters. It was having to be done on an industrial scale, and that's not what he was about, but practice had changed that ment keeping deer numbers properly regulated had been scraped.

 

[bopdude]

What are/will they do with all the meat from those culled Red? surely they wont waste it?

Knowing this country it will be burned as waste / fallen stock, instead of doing some good with it, we're just waking up to the 'throw the dead fish caught back' bafoonery.

 

[demographic]

Ace, that meats bound to have less tranquillisers in it than horsemeat.

 

[nuggets]

bury the deer and feed us horse meat !!!!!!!!!!

 

[British Red]

Exactly that! Not horsemeat, as free range and organic as any meat will ever be. But no, Mr Blair and his cronies couldn't have people having access to free, healthy meat, in a way that was millenia old could they? Oh no. It needs to be controlled and vetted by cities, cleaned in industrial units and generally citified.

I could honestly scream today.

 

[Toddy]

No bunny hugger, but.....the reason the deer got out of control is simply that 'sporting rights' tried to keep what should have been a food resource as something exclusive.

Sheep don't go through game dealers, neither do chickens or turkeys. Deer, grouse, pheasant.....they do.....after they've been a nice earner for landowners, except there's not been enough business for them, has there ?

Abatoirs are licenced for a damned good reason. Ecoli is endemic in the countryside; and not all meat is fit for human consumption.

I agree that the number of deer has gotten totally out of hand, and have said so for longer than I have been on this forum, but don't just blame the 'townies' for the issue. The countryside brigade want their sport and they wanted the high spenders to pay them for the privilege of taking care of their deer problems.
Didn't work, did it ?

Now they have no option but to accept the same food standards as anyone else selling meat.

Toddy


Mod bit.
I will not comment further on the thread, but I am giving a clear warning; do not turn this thread political.
It will simply be closed.
M

 

[nuggets]

Exactly that! Not horsemeat, as free range and organic as any meat will ever be. But no, Mr Blair and his cronies couldn't have people having access to free, healthy meat, in a way that was millenia old could they? Oh no. It needs to be controlled and vetted by cities, cleaned in industrial units and generally citified.

I could honestly scream today.

I better go and sharpen me broadheads and fill me fridge then !! Before we get even more oppressed !

 

[nuggets]

what do you mean by deer `got out of control` toddy ??? Its not like they have taken over ,have they ??

 

[Dougster]

As you probably know deer stalking is my main hobby and I love doing it, but we have lost land where we shoot and share the meat, to companies that sell stalking to clients for trophies, leaving all the does. This mismanagement by greed is making a mess.

As for moving the deer on, I have a certificate, for £300 and a test, which allows me to sell it to game dealers and processors - of which there are more than a few, quite easily.

This is not what is seems and there will be a huge backlash against stalkers as they try to regulate it further. It can't end well.

 

[stuey]

Hang on a minute chaps.....

Venison can be supplied in-fur to private individuals, local retailers and pubs/restaurants in exchange for money without the need for the hunter (trained hunter ie DSC1 as a minimum) registering as a food business and thus incurring large costs to set up an approved larder.

For reference DSC 1 costs around £250 and a bit of studying to achieve.

Ah you beat me to it Rich

 

[stuey]

This is not what is seems and there will be a huge backlash against stalkers as they try to regulate it further. It can't end well.

I'm not sure about the back lash Rich. I had a very interesting chat with a gent from the Deer Initiative today who was very much in agreement with me that a contributing factor to the boom in numbers is related to land greed amongst the stalking fraternity. Put simply, the stalker across the road from my small but manageable permission has, over the years, secured upwards of 35,000 acres of stalking which he refuses to give-up, share or effectively manage. He has a full time job running a business and is rarely seen out by the landowners. Result? 35,000 acres of ineffectively managed stalking ground. If all of us stalkers stuck to smaller tracts of land and collaborated, the population could be much more effectively controlled.
I believe this is the direction the Deer Initiative have been working towards and will continue to do so.
I stalk 185 acres, know pretty well what the population is here and can happily achieve my cull quota by working with the encumbent stalker who looks after the remaining 300 acres.

 

[British Red]

Trouble is many farms can't find a non-employee DSC1 stalker,with insurance, known to the farmer to be trustworthy.

They exist for sure - but it all adds to the "hassle" factor to the farmer - and many just can't be bothered since they can't now do their own management (being already a food business).

I don't know what world Mary lives in with all these

high spenders to pay them for the privilege of taking care of their deer problems.

- I bet Dougster doesn't pay anything beyond a "thank you" gift - like most English stalkers. We don't have those great stalking estates like Scotland - just a management problem.

Of course when they could pass on the meat to friends and locals it was okay. I'm sure it is FAR more sensible to just kill and bury the meat though isn't it - we all know we really need yet more regulation.