The Quantock Red Deer cull was yesterday. I am sure that you will all be pleased to know that it was a complete none event and dismal failure for the organisers. In fact it has finished up quite an embarrassment and public relations disaster for the Quantock Deer Management Group, as both the ITV and BBC local news covered the event with lengthy filmed recordings, one news item also went out nationally.
The League against Cruel Sport was monitoring, as were other Deer conservation Groups, but it seems that they were not needed, as few if any Landowners answered the call of the Management Group. The Group who ever they are, seem to be making themselves out as custodians of the Deer Herds on the Quantocks, but have got the feelings of the Landowner wrong, as far as this cull was concerned.
The custodians of the Deer Herds, and most around the Country are the Hunts. You know my feeling on hunting. But if the hunts were still legal, this cull would not have ever been contemplated. If the cull had gone ahead there would have been many Deer that would have been injured by misfiring and inexperienced people shooting. The Local Hunt would have been needed to hunt the injured animals, to put them out of their suffering. When ever injured Deer were seen and the Hunt notified, they would go and find the animal.
The Deer numbers have to be controlled. Farmers and Landowners will not allow the Deer to continually eat their crops. Believe me a medium size herd of Deer will eat a lot of crops in a few hours. At Denbury we don’t see the Deer as a big problem in the Winter, in fact for most of the year they are not. They do eat a lot of our grass. In the spring I would be concerned if there were large numbers of Deer eating the grass that we make our hay with. If I were an arable Farmer I would not be best pleased if they were eating my Winter Wheat.
The Deer down the valley, just before the Badgers were fed, were a Roe Deer and her Kid. I don’t know if you saw it, the Doe chased three other Deer out of the field. By the look of it she was not allowing her kid to feed from her, and is starting to wean it off of her.
Denbury is no more than a couple of miles from the Quantock Hills, from where most of the Deer that visit us originate from. I was concerned about the cull.