David Barker
Well-Known Member
SGA engagement leads to Parliamentary questions
Key topics for members on deer raised at Holyrood
SGA pushing the intrusive questions at the Scottish Parliment.
- Thread starter David Barker
- Start date
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
I don't know what the issue is. You'd better ask some Scottish stalkers who are represented by the SGA. Apparently their mental health is affected if they have to cull pregnant female deer.
Given that all female deer culled within the current open seasons are pregnant (if my interpretation of the seasons is correct), it seems a bit odd to be worrying about now.
On the other hand, perhaps they've been bottling up this anxiety for years....
David Barker
Well-Known Member
It does not need to be ! I certainly don't cut large foetus of of deer i dislike it and i have that choice.
David Barker
Well-Known Member
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
They should shoot more during the season then
Been shooting roe till March up here for years , no one has had a breakdown cause of it.
Been shooting roe till March up here for years , no one has had a breakdown cause of it.
David Barker
Well-Known Member
I can never understand any one having to shoot roe till March i have mine done by valentines day. Unless your employed to do it and your employer is pushing an ever increasing cull target.
Well there's absolutely no reason for anyone in the deer industry to object to season changes that amount to a relaxation of the current rules, other than clinging to outdated tradition. I don't, for one moment, believe the nonsense about negative impacts on stalkers' mental wellbeing as a result of culling pregnant deer. It's just a ruse to appeal to the more sensitive among the rule makers.
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nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
It's not a mandatory co tinue shooting until March. It's just giving the option to those who want or need to.
As you said, you're done by mid Feb so it has zero impact on you and what someone else is doing on a other piece of land should also have zero impact on you.
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
Moray Outfitting
Well-Known Member
The season for roe used to be closed a lot earlier. Many of you will not know that. It was changed in the 80's when the forestry was taking off in Scotland. The forestry companies complained that there was a spell where no deer were in season. Forestry companies put forward that march into april was when the young trees were being planted and deer were having a field day. So the season was changed. It was up to the stalker on a piece of ground to decide if they were going to shoot later. Exactly the same as we have now re the male deer. Some will not go past the old seasons. That is their choice. And I applaud them for that. My next comments WILL upset some. There are many shooters who call themselves stakers, but want to kill deer all year round. Some say the SGA attitude will play into the anti hands. Sorry but if your attitude is to kill, kill and kill more, you have more to worry about . I believe what is happening up here is a prelude to a season change. Precislely why you do not have any seasons in the DSC 1 anymore. Why put seasons in if they are up for changes. For you guys down south who shoot deer longer than we do, I believe it is just an excuse for not shooting earlier. Too busy with pheasant shooting and don't really get going till that is finished. It happened up here many years ago. Stalkers knew that the snow would come in December/January and the deer would be lower down on the hills. Easier got. Culls were got easy enough. Then the "climate change"thing started. Next to no snow. We will get them next year was the comment heard. But no snow the next year. And by the third year the population had exploded and we had to get ontop of them. Which did happen. In season. So leaving them till later on does not work. And by all all accounts, the population down south has now exploded because of that. Rant over , but if I have upset some on here, so be it. J
I believe the population explosion in the south is due to different reasons here is my opinion for what it is worth
1. People buying smallish areas of land and not allowing shooting on them, fallow soon learn where it is safe.
2 . So called deer managers buying up areas to take payin shooters out on.
3. So called stalkers who think shooting more than one deer a day is hard work
4. Stalkers not knowing that if a deer has a black cross on it then that is the one to cull.
1. People buying smallish areas of land and not allowing shooting on them, fallow soon learn where it is safe.
2 . So called deer managers buying up areas to take payin shooters out on.
3. So called stalkers who think shooting more than one deer a day is hard work
4. Stalkers not knowing that if a deer has a black cross on it then that is the one to cull.
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
Your first point is spot on. In England and the further south you go this is a huge contribution. Every time a decent piece of land is inherited and sold it's chopped up into ever decreasing pieces and everyone has a different view. Mix in herding species that roam across multiple pieces of land with various views on acceptable deer numbers and methods of control and it makes culling difficult.
David Barker
Well-Known Member
The winter payment has nothing to do with me either but we all seem to have an opinion. That's all it is an opinion but i can see were this would be pushed hard by the new landowners from afar who insist on every deer shot dead.
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
Whether it's a good thing or not but in the UK all land is pretty much owned by someone and they can do what they want with it for their own benefit and not that of the wider country. This is partly why nearly every country that was "founded" when people left the UK have such wide expanses of public space for the wider benefit of everyone, not just landowners.
David Barker
Well-Known Member
Only incompetence pushes to the end of the season or desperation.
I don’t think that you can label it as incompetence.
I’m out as a recreational stalker almost every week of the year mostly managing Roe deer.
I’m far happier to have the ability to decide myself on where and when is the most appropriate time for me to reduce the deer population depending on the stressors for that particular piece of land.
Sometimes due to a whole host of reasons it is necessary to shoot female Roe deer in March and whilst it’s not a decision to be taken lightly, the decision itself is not driven by a person’s competence but by the land management needs.
I apply the same high level of respect to every deer I add to my management records regardless of whether it is male or female, pregnant or barren.
To my mind, flexibility for deer management practitioners to be given greater control and flexibility at ground level is a good thing.
Lots of people are in situations where they could probably successfully apply for a night authorisation licence but choose not to. I would imagine greater flexibility in the management of female deer in Scotland would follow a similar path.
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