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From the Telegraph, London (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...eer24.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/24/ixhome.html):
Landowners say public purse should help to fund culling of red deer
By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent
(Filed: 24/09/2003)
Landowners called for public funding yesterday to help them control deer on Scotland's hills after claims that a record number of red deer were causing serious environmental damage.
A spokesman for the Scottish Landowners' Federation said its members were being asked to provide a "public benefit at private cost" by bearing the financial burden of culling huge numbers of hinds every winter.
Jonathan Hall, SLF rural policy adviser, said two conservation groups that expressed concern about the effect on the natural environment of more than 400,000 red deer were treating Britain's biggest land mammal as "vermin". He added that while numbers were too high in some parts of the Highlands and may be causing habitat damage through intensive grazing, in other areas the population was under control.
"To call for a major reduction in the total number of deer is a gross simplification of the issue," said Mr Hall. "Landowners are working very closely with the Deer Commission to control numbers, but if you don't do it carefully it raises all sorts of animal welfare issues.
"The vast majority of landowners recognise they have a responsibility to manage deer and do that to the best of their abilities, but I think the time is right now, if the public interest would be served by increasing culls, for a debate about public funding for the deer cull."
Pete Mayhew, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which produced the report on deer numbers with WWF Scotland, said there could be situations in which a landowner would merit assistance from the public purse.
If a new landowner took over a sporting estate and found that he had inherited a deer problem, then it might be appropriate to provide financial support.
But he added: "I would certainly not want public money to be given to landowners who had simply taken their eye off the ball."
Nick Reiter, of the Deer Commission for Scotland, said it was misleading to characterise deer as "over-running the whole of Scotland". "The commission is focusing on areas where local deer densities are causing measurable serious damage or risk to the public."
The conservation groups said the number of red deer, sika deer and roe deer in Scotland was at its highest since the war and called on the Scottish Executive to provide the commission with extra resources to allow it to enforce large deer culls.
Landowners say public purse should help to fund culling of red deer
By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent
(Filed: 24/09/2003)
Landowners called for public funding yesterday to help them control deer on Scotland's hills after claims that a record number of red deer were causing serious environmental damage.
A spokesman for the Scottish Landowners' Federation said its members were being asked to provide a "public benefit at private cost" by bearing the financial burden of culling huge numbers of hinds every winter.
Jonathan Hall, SLF rural policy adviser, said two conservation groups that expressed concern about the effect on the natural environment of more than 400,000 red deer were treating Britain's biggest land mammal as "vermin". He added that while numbers were too high in some parts of the Highlands and may be causing habitat damage through intensive grazing, in other areas the population was under control.
"To call for a major reduction in the total number of deer is a gross simplification of the issue," said Mr Hall. "Landowners are working very closely with the Deer Commission to control numbers, but if you don't do it carefully it raises all sorts of animal welfare issues.
"The vast majority of landowners recognise they have a responsibility to manage deer and do that to the best of their abilities, but I think the time is right now, if the public interest would be served by increasing culls, for a debate about public funding for the deer cull."
Pete Mayhew, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which produced the report on deer numbers with WWF Scotland, said there could be situations in which a landowner would merit assistance from the public purse.
If a new landowner took over a sporting estate and found that he had inherited a deer problem, then it might be appropriate to provide financial support.
But he added: "I would certainly not want public money to be given to landowners who had simply taken their eye off the ball."
Nick Reiter, of the Deer Commission for Scotland, said it was misleading to characterise deer as "over-running the whole of Scotland". "The commission is focusing on areas where local deer densities are causing measurable serious damage or risk to the public."
The conservation groups said the number of red deer, sika deer and roe deer in Scotland was at its highest since the war and called on the Scottish Executive to provide the commission with extra resources to allow it to enforce large deer culls.