why is it legal to allow deer to starve in the snow?

[entranced]

Can someone please tell me why it can be legal to manage a herd of deer when it turns a multi million pound profit, but turn a blind eye in the winter months? If i wanted to go to Scotland and capture a couple[and i dont], i feel sure someone would make aclaim on those deer, right?....can they have it both ways?

[tamborine]

if these are wild deer, they are left to the environment. Most wild animals know where humans are and prefer to distance themselves. However, land-owners etc will roll out hay & feed in times of need.

[Mr Veritas]

Wild deer are classed as "Wild Animals" and therefore (rightly or wrongly) do not fall within the scope of the law.
Although landowners may claim to "own" them, because they roam and graze freely the law cannot be applied to them.

[Mr Veritas]

PS:~
A herd of deer (at the present time at least) will NOT turn in anywhere like a million pound profit.
O don't know where you get such figures from,but they are wrong.
At the present time venison is at it's lowest price for over 25 years,and deer shooting on Scottish estates is struggling to get anyone to hire them.

[tamborine]

culling is shooting....why not hire out guns. Culls are licensed to game-keepers. Here's a good use of livestock.....this island is too small to allow all animals to run amok.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk...3D8189579590383891090

[entranced]

Thanks all, i do think regardless of the price of venison that those who are in a position of 'guardianship' of our environment, should show more regard for the value of life.....wild in this case.Landowners who make money[or whose business it is] out of the hunting of deer really should lay out hay and pellets in extreme weather......its called duty of care right? Anyway, these deer tho treated conveniently as wildlfe are nothing like a rabbit population?...surely they are treated differently, nobody would think seriously about introducing a disease like mixi into a herd of deer now would they.Thanx again for your answers and i think i got the multi million pound industry info from the press......so yes, it probably was grossly overestimated.

[Mr Veritas]

Just a few more thoughts that have occured to me, and you might find of interest?
The Scottish estates where deer live and breed often cover thousands of acres of the most inhospitable land in the UK.
Deer range free on these estates.
Although there are roads(mainly unmade tracks) through them,they are few and far between.Sometimes herds of deer,who naturally are not used to humans and will shun any place that has a human smell, can be up to 10 or 15 miles from such a track. Whilst the owners of such estates will put out food in bitter weather the deer may not come down to the road for it,and of course the owners (even with quad bikes) cannot get it to the deer.
Even though(at present) these estate owners do not make much out of hiring the land/deer for stalking,or from venison gotten through culling,it IS in their interest to try and maintain the deer population.
We should also remember that the ponies on Exmoor,Dartmoor and in the New Forest are also consicered to be "wild" although they belong to people.They (like the deer) are allowed to roam freely,and are only given feed during bitter weather,mainly because(again like the deer) they often roam in areas inacessible to their "owners".
This is very vexed and confusing subject.Some would ask, where do we drawn the line,do we put out food for ALL wild animals regardless,or only those we feel sympathy for (or are "owned").I realsie that you feel for the deer,but they ARE looked after (when necessary) to the best of the estate owners ability.

[Mr Veritas]

PS:~
I apologise if I am reading your answer worongly.ONLY Rabbits can contract/suffer from Myxomatosis.

[Mr Veritas]

PPS~
Reading your answer the other way.
There are (luckily) very few diseases that mountain bred deer suffer from,mainly because they are so isolated they never catch anything from another herd.
They are also quite resistant to any disease that man might try and introduce.

[entranced]

Thankyou Mr Veritas for your time and consideration on this issue.One think tho before i drop this......i didnt mean to imply that a disease should or could be introduced to a deer population, i just meant that nobody would even consider it,making it clearly different from say....a wild rodent population. Also,yes, interesting we both thought of the wild ponies.......we do indeed feed them when necessary....i guess we feel we owe them something?!haha.......just a thought....we do feed other species even tho they are considered wildlife....birds....if a flock of swans were caught in ice would we not have the firebrigade or somesuch organization rescue them?...certainly we would not leave nature to take its coarse and let them perish.....we are allways intervening in nature, it just takes the will....and it would be mine...anything can be done if there is a will to do it, overcoming even the hurdles you mention.Why rescue a beached whale?....positive intervention !...You sound well informed regarding deer Mr Veritas, are you a stalker? I look forward to more from you.....regards,

[Mr Veritas]

Hello there,
No I am not a stalker (of any kind!LOL) but I do have a friend who lives on the edge oif a large Scottish estate,so I do appreciate just how difficult it can be to feed deer in bad weather when the deer are often miles and miles away from any road etc.Also as I said,deer are very wary of humans,unlike the ponies or indeed many other wild animals that need and get fed in bitter weather.