Cutting deer numbers

Conservationists say it is necessary to reduce deer numbers to an acceptable level that doesn't cause ecological damage. When asked why the population has increased so rapidly, they say deer are reproducing prolifically and that there are no large predators, namely the wolf, left to control them.

However, the last wolf was killed in the United Kingdom around 1750, and their numbers were in serious decline for many decades before that.

So it is reasonable to assume that wolves have had little impact on deer for the past 300-350 years.

It is only in recent years that deer numbers have increased significantly, due to a thriving stalking industry and the planting of succulent native saplings by conservation groups, who abhor deer fencing because of their politically-motivated agenda of prettifying the countryside for public access. Both factors contribute enormously to an artificially high deer population.

American experience has shown that hunting and culling actually increase deer numbers. It is the activities of man that requires changing, not the slaughter of thousands of deer.

A MACMILLAN, Meikle Boturich, Balloch, Dunbartonshire