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 | | From: | J Smytje | | Subject: | Outrage at mass slaughter of deer | | Date: | Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:42:38 +0000 |
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 | http://www.advocatesforanimals.org.uk/campaigns/wild/others/glenfeschie.html
Outrage at mass slaughter of deer
Summer 2004
The cruel mass slaughter of a herd of red deer has brought into
question the methods used by the Scottish Executive agency, the Deer
Commission for Scotland (DCS), to control Scotland's deer population.
The slaughter received extensive media coverage.
The slaughter of deer on the Glenfeschie Estate was filmed by the
Scottish Gamekeepers' Association. The footage showed dozens of
terrified deer panicking and running to escape from guns and an
overhead helicopter. It also showed well-developed foetuses that had
been removed from shot deer. Hundreds of deer were killed on this
estate alone this spring.
Concerns about animal welfare and human health issues led to the
Scottish Executive undertaking an investigation into the slaughter.
The resulting report, which was labelled a 'whitewash', did not find
any material breaches of deer welfare. Advocates believes it seriously
underestimated the suffering and welfare problems that arose during
the Glenfeshie slaughter.
In a letter to the Executive, Advocates commented:
"Advocates is totally opposed to the culling of pregnant deer. We
believe this practice to be inhumane. We are also totally opposed to
the use of helicopters to drive and corral deer. The Deer (Scotland)
Act 1996 prohibits the use of vehicles to drive deer; we believe this
prohibition should now be extended to include the use of helicopters.
"The report states that the DCS acknowledges that for at least two
deer, time to death could have taken up to fifteen minutes. This must
have caused great suffering and is totally unacceptable. It is alleged
that ten shots were needed to finally kill one deer. If this is
correct, this too is totally unacceptable."
Advocates is calling on the Scottish Executive to ensure that the Deer
Commission for Scotland investigates long-term humane, non-lethal,
methods of controlling Scotland's deer population, including the use
of contraception.
Advocates spoke out against the cruel killing on the BBC's Landward TV
programme and was quoted extensively in the national press:
"Advocates for Animals finds the needless killing of any animal
abhorrent. The cold, calculated and merciless killing of pregnant deer
is a step too far - and to have carried out the slaughter outside of
the closed season, a season designed to protect pregnant deer, unborn
and dependent calves, is despicable. Most of the public would view the
killing of any deer out-of-season to be well outwith the remit of the
Deer Commission for Scotland and the killing of pregnant females to be
savage and inhumane."
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