Stalking locked down?

PSE Composites Limited - The next level Rifle Stocks
Just received this email from the BDS re the below...



BDS Update:

Stalking During the Current Covid-19 Government Restrictions
There has been a great deal of speculation as to whether deerstalking is an acceptable activity in the current situation. The government has given clear instructions that people must stay at home and avoid all non-essential travel.

It is the opinion of the BDS that recreational stalking, and its associated travel implications, are not essential and should therefore not take place at the current time.

Professional Stalkers should seek the advice of their employers, line managers or landowners.

We are aware that a number of organisations including SNH, FE and FLS have ceased all culling operations as of today.

The situation remains under constant review and further guidance will be given as appropriate.

To review the latest recommendations and restrictions issued by the UK Government regarding Coronavirus/Covid-19 visit https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus


The deer man said:
"
GOV.UK
Food and other necessary goods
This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
"

Stalking as a totally recreational entity, I can understand if it must cease for a period of time. However crop protection form an agricultural point of view is still part and parcel of food production, whether this is fencing off rabbits and deer or managing them by shooting. This is not about getting around the Government instructions but carrying on with your job (paid or unpaid) as part of 'agri-production' as per food production above.

Personally I feel shooting deer at the moment is fairly pointless as most game dealers aren't taking them and are probably on the verge of closing for the foreseeable anyway. Shooting the odd deer to keep them off a particular crop may be necessary but won't last for long as a solution and then you need to dispose of the carcass into an almost full freezer!

For me all my deer management is local, on my doorstep, and I don't need to come into contact with another soul so if required and legal under the current Government instructions will carry on but in a very limited capacity. As a registered food business I could process the meat following all food hygiene guidelines, then most probably give it away locally.

I am searching/asking for the official line on this and assuming I get an answer I'll post it.
Click to expand...
 
The fourth Horseman said:
I just hope in that 30 min drive you don't break down or have an accident. I have no contact with others but the PM said isolate (even more today) and a colleague on here has a wife very involved with infectious diseases. If she says people are nuts for carrying on travelling about and shooting I listen to her as she would take my advice reference stalking.
I was thinking I would carry on at one stage but listening to front end experts I saw the light. :tiphat:
Click to expand...
BANG ON POST

my wife is a doctor -

And me being a " bloke " I've said bollox to it all ,,
But my sensible side has now said ,


Chill out n stay in watching telly ( which I don't do , or listen to the news or read tabloids )

My wife's colleague s from Germany told her 4 weeks ago ....


I've stopped being an arrogant / masculine prick now

So should we all ..........


Take heed n listen gents ,( think about it like .... Breaking your leg , your out of action for a few weeks . But in a few weeks you will be back to normal , as long as you don't feck your cast off and try to circumnavigate the laws of physics )

Do you get what I'm saying ????!

Just chill. For a few weeks and enjoy, just chilling out

Feck it

Kjf
 
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Evening, well i own my ground and we have a lot of chickens and my next door neighbor has lambs, I'm just in haven been round with the rifle and thermal checking for foxes..... I haven't heard anything about vermin control and given my eggs are our source of protein and we also eat the chicken I will continue to protect from the foxes and protect the lambs too.
 
Any stalkers turn up to my land they will have their permissions removed and never asked back, as land owners where do I know where you have come from touched my gates and fences. Pretty straight forward its 3 weeks and then reviewed if the virus spread has slowed or gone you can go out. I doubt the land is going to fall into disrepair in a month a couple.of bucks and few foxes wont destroy the place. It's this naivety that has left Italy with 5000 plus dead they thought is was a joke. Most forestry companies have closed down the Woodlands to shooting anyway.
 
I thought it was the thousands of Chinese infected with the disease traveling in the fashion industry to Italy that caused the problem not stalkers.
 
I work for the ambulance service on a rapid response vehicle and also on an ambulance, my wife is a nurse on icu/mau with a combined 25years in the NHS, we have both looked after multiple patients with Covid, both of us have never seen a virus or disease that can make you so critically unwell in such a short space of time, talking to them one minute and in hours be on a ventilator or dead. Also so massively contagious It really is scary, I just wish people would take it seriously, young or old you really are in danger from it. So if you can avoid going out I would strongly advise it. The less people go out the shorter the “lockdown” period will be. Stay safe out there people
 
It's not about stalkers, if there's say 100k stalkers in the UK all thinking I'm alright Jack, I'm not hurting anyone so I'll carry on as normal. Then all the fishermen, they're not hurting anyone either, so they carry on as normal, another few hundred thousand there, a few hundred thousand golfers what harm can they do, etc...
 
Stay at home, Stay at home. But if the government regulation has caused you to lose your job and now you have 6 months of lockdown with no job and the landlord throws you out? Well where is home now the street, a tent? How does one stay at home if you are homeless?

That is the issue facing a lot of people.
 
landlords can't throw you out, mortgages can go on hold, if people just adhere to this it will be easier and far better for people, if people carry on then it will only be far worse, this has shown me how selfish some people really are and also how blinkered they are.
 
For how long can people live rent free, how long can you live rent free and no food because you have no income? How long before the economy can restart when businesses have collapsed overnight and there is no work if you come out on the other side?

I don't hear any politicians discussing this, much other than a stimulus. Well a stimulus can only go so far when the interest rates are almost zero. There will be billions of people on the unemployment line after this and that will be a cause of civil unrest.
 
The supermarkets are all still open,
butchers shops are all still open too
thank god!

So what does lock down and social distancing mean?

Is it safer to visit a germ filled supermarket to buy meat as oppose to harvesting your own meat, totally alone and away from any other human contact?

I appreciate there are issues as regards human contact at game dealers, so selling carcasses is a non starter.

However out of interest to the "armchair experts" on here, what qualifies farmers and abattoirs to still continue to operate as normal, over the likes of deer stalkers and game dealers? What is the difference?

I'm not arguing the lock down decision, and I shall abide it, but common sense needs to prevail too.

The abattoirs all have multiple staff working together, they also meet with farmers as they drop off livestock. This is essential for putting meat into the human food chain. Yet people on here are happy to say the venison trade is not as important and can wait?

Perhaps it is? As it does not feed the majority of the population? It's a difficult decision but my rifles are going away for a while until it blows over!

It disappoints me to read so many negative posts about people taking deer for their own consumption for the table during this alarming time.

Many people on here are too quick to make assumptions and judge about others circumstances, particularly what they can afford etc.

I certainly treat meat as a luxury. I have a tight budget to feed a family of 4 on. If I didn't trade venison for other meat we'd just eat venison and supermarket chicken.

Its funny how the same people that are happy to agree that we only buy pre pack meat in the supermarkets during this lock down period are also whingeing about the new influx of farmed NZ Venison that has taken over the uk market well before Coronavirus.
 
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