RECENT incidents of what appears to be out-of-season deer culling on the Isle of Skye must not become Scotland’s standard of deer management, gamekeepers have warned.
Photographs have emerged on Facebook showing dead hinds inside a new forestry enclosure at Dunvegan, near the MacLeod Estate.
One image shows a large, unborn calf lying beside its shot mother and a second post shows another dead hind found just 1000 yards away.
The scenes have angered local people on social media, with one man who did not wish to be identified saying: “Shooting out of season is wrong and disgusting. The Government is wrong to hand out licences to do these culls.
“To get a few deer out of a gate isn’t like a few sheep with your dog ... but trying to get a few deer out of a newly fenced off huge area is very, very hard.”
It is understood the fenced enclosure is part of a £1 million native woodland creation project on the estate which has caused tension in the community.
A spokesperson for the MacLeod Estate said: “The MacLeod Estate and its team takes its deer management responsibilities very seriously and the only culling authorised and undertaken this year has been in accordance with the regulations and in permitted areas.”
Scottish Gamekeepers Association chair Alex Hogg said the organisation is urging the Scottish Government not to sanction changes which will “make this type of deer management the standard in Scotland”.
He said: “We are not going to enter into speculation as to what has happened here.
“What we do know is that one image clearly shows a female, with a very large unborn calf, which has obviously been culled weeks outside of the legal open season.
“Judging by online comments, this is not the type of deer management the people of Skye want to see, climate emergency or not.”
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