Deer culling to be made easier to protect trees and crops

What’s Happening

So basically The government unveils a long awaited 10-year deer management plan that will identify priority culling areas.

Deer culling to be made easier to protect trees and crops 2 hours ago Save Malcolm Prior rural affairs producer Save There are thought to be around 2m deer in Britain, the highest number for 1,000 years Culling deer in England will be made easier under a long-awaited government 10-year plan to deal with a population explosion that threatens woodlands, newly-planted trees and farmland. There are thought to be more than two million deer in Britain, which have damaged one third of English woodlands and left farmers with costly crop losses. (wild, right?)

The government has unveiled a deer management strategy that will identify priority culling areas and make it easier to carry out licensed night-time and closed-season shooting.

The Details

Farmers could also be given new legal rights to shoot them to protect their crops. But some animal welfare campaigners dropped culling was inhumane and not effective in the long term.

More than 74,000 deer are involved in collisions with vehicles each year, according to the RSPCA Andrew Blenkiron, who oversees the Elveden estate in Suffolk, welcomed any measures that would make it easier to control deer numbers, which he dropped had “rocketed” during Covid lockdowns and remained high. Blenkiron told the BBC that dealing with smaller deer such as muntjac was a “horrendous battle as they almost breed like rabbits” and the loss and damage to crops caused costs the estate up to £100,000 a year.

Why This Matters

“Carrots are a real focus for them. They even dig potatoes up, believe it or not. The big red deer dig potatoes out of the ground,” he broke down.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

The Bottom Line

He added that meat from deer culled around the estate was sold locally and supplied to a near. But a spokeswoman for the animal rights campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) dropped that culling wild deer would not resolve the problem of overpopulation.

Are you here for this or nah?