Did anyone just see Skycops on BBC1? Quite worrying to say the least...
This episode was dealing mainly with firearms and they had reports of armed 'poachers' in a park after the deer. They gave a local deer 'enthusiast' some air time to say how these 'poachers' had reduced the numbers of deer he had been seeing whilst putting feed out for them, and then one of the officers mentioned how he wanted to catch them as he is an animal lover.
By now they are describing people with silenced rifles in broad daylight, doesn't sound like your average poacher does it, but they persist with the line about how dangerous the situation is, people in possession of illegal, high powered rifles, must get the situation under control etc etc. One of the officers also says that wild deer 'belong to the queen'!!
In the end they find the 'poachers' concerned and, after one of the men phones the police on his mobile to find out why the helicopter is hovering over them, the commentator mentions very very briefly that they were part of an 'organised deer cull'. The police then went on to claim what an 'excellent result' it was catching up with the men concerned. Later they simply say 'the men were not charged with any offences'.
So basically the men were not poachers, they were stalkers who were shooting legally, with permission and with legally held firearms and yet this wasn't confirmed.
I can imagine that this will leave the average layman viewer believing that deer stalking is illegal in some way and that these men got away with it somehow. Not responsible journalism and quite worrying really!
You can view it on iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dqflk/b00dqfh8/
This episode was dealing mainly with firearms and they had reports of armed 'poachers' in a park after the deer. They gave a local deer 'enthusiast' some air time to say how these 'poachers' had reduced the numbers of deer he had been seeing whilst putting feed out for them, and then one of the officers mentioned how he wanted to catch them as he is an animal lover.
By now they are describing people with silenced rifles in broad daylight, doesn't sound like your average poacher does it, but they persist with the line about how dangerous the situation is, people in possession of illegal, high powered rifles, must get the situation under control etc etc. One of the officers also says that wild deer 'belong to the queen'!!
In the end they find the 'poachers' concerned and, after one of the men phones the police on his mobile to find out why the helicopter is hovering over them, the commentator mentions very very briefly that they were part of an 'organised deer cull'. The police then went on to claim what an 'excellent result' it was catching up with the men concerned. Later they simply say 'the men were not charged with any offences'.
So basically the men were not poachers, they were stalkers who were shooting legally, with permission and with legally held firearms and yet this wasn't confirmed.
I can imagine that this will leave the average layman viewer believing that deer stalking is illegal in some way and that these men got away with it somehow. Not responsible journalism and quite worrying really!
You can view it on iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dqflk/b00dqfh8/