Deer Killers, Professionals or Experts?

The RSPB/National Trust Partnership running the Eastern Moors is preparing to shoot deer sometime very soon. We understand that those employed to shoot deer will be 'professionals'. You get professionals everywhere these days. There are even professional criminals I'm sometimes reading about. But usually it's an attempt to give somebody a status they might not otherwise claim.

There are people around shooting deer already, poachers and farmers, each considering themselves professionals doubtless.Their preference is shooting stags, in common with David Cameron, a professional of a different kind. There's a strong trophy element to it. Now also there's a plan to shoot grey squirrels. That too will make some people feel good, Prince Charles being one I understand.

Once the principle is established on local moors the practice will continue as the standard way of dealing with wildlife for those whose mindset does not go beyond the dogma of 'all land must be managed'. After all it happens in most other places. So much for the Sheffield Moors being a model for upland management across the country.

The unimaginative response to an apparent increase in wildlife numbers is what drives me more and more into the belief that re-introductions of previously exterminated predators must be the way forward. The pine marten is, we are told, an expert, not a professional, in dealing with grey squirrels. Lynx, another expert, would help to move deer around and kill some younger ones; it could even keep the foxes out of the curlews' nests.

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Just published, a superb article by Mark Fisher analysing the subject of re-introductions in this country with lots of fascinating information about the situation in France and other parts of Europe:

Cry wolf - the return of Britain's top predator