Prince William goes 'deer culling' in Balmoral

[vera99]

What's wrong with these people? I can maybe understand the need for occasional culling (though it is most often for the human agency not a concern for the animal) but to go out and enjoy stalking these magnificent creatures get them in the sights of your guns and kill them - that's just sick.

PS. King Charles was a big fan of fox hunting

AIBU? - Yes this is actual nature conservation activity and William is showing concern and leadership in participating in the shooting.

YANBU? - No this is a sick perverted hobby of the super-rich who glory in the pleasure killing of defenceless animals.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11300807/Prince-Wales-visits-Balmoral-goes-deer-stalking-Scotland-trip-Queens-funeral.html

"Deer stalking is the act of culling ageing stags that would otherwise die in the winter, with William shooting his first when he was 14 years old, something that is said to have left him delighted at the time.
The activity, which has been a shared passion among generations of the Royal Family, was encouraged by William's father King Charles III, while Princess Diana used to jokingly call him 'my killer Wales'.
William is not thought to have been joined in Scotland by his wife Catherine, who is herself a keen markswoman, and their children. A spokesman for Kensington Palace declined to comment."

An ethical viewpoint

If I gave you a piece of chicken with lead shot in it @Kissingfrogs25, trust me you'd bloody notice! You don't blindly eat it. The staidly is talking about trace amounts of fragments, but you'd have to eat a large amount worth of pheasants.
That's okay, you pass and I'll gladly eat your share.

do you eat meat, eggs or dairy products OP? I can guarantee that the deer have a better quality of life than the animals that provide you with your eggs, dairy products and meat.

The op said she was vegan.

No the OP is vegan. They told us a few posts in.

I'm definitely going to be looking this up - thanks for the information.

If these are re-introduced in Scotland, it'll be in the far north where they'll also be penned in to a large reservation.

This wouldn't solve deer populations as they're spread around Scotland itself. 🤔

Yes and work happening there with reintroduction of water voles, beavers, pine martens etc has been fantastic, but Alex predators need long term management. They won’t stay in Kielder, so it’s not just kielder or Knepp or any other of these areas that are durrrntky suitable, they need other areas and safe wildlife corridors too.

Did he answer to his name? If not, what was the point of naming him? They are wild animals, not dogs.

Sorry - I should have seen that. But I can't imagine many of the other posters saying YANBU are.

There is serious money involved.
I am still amazed that a credible journo or producer hasn’t lifted the lid on this area of our society in a very serious investigative way.

If they did all hell would break loose, I am 100% sure most people have absolutely no idea how barbaric this practice is, and how dangerous it is to hunt.

I presume you’d rather have sick, diseased, half-starved deer?
Oh, and don’t forget about a bit of Royalty-bashing alongside

I love a bit of Royalty-bashing- the pageantry, the thrill of the chase. It's necessary to keep numbers down- each Royal can cost hundreds of millions to keep.

Would people who say it's cruel rather sick, elderly royals have to dodder around appointing prime ministers while in pain? Kinder to put them down.

I live near a park and the deer have to be culled regularly, or it ruins the biodiversity of the park. Look into Yellowstone National park - they introduced wolves which killed the deer/moved the deer to a different area of the park, and the positive impact it had on nature was amazing.

Hopefully MNHQ will be able to appreciate the difference between tongue in cheek comments and serious suggestions. I'm sure they get pompous reports to weed out every day.

I don’t eat meat thanks.
The bullets are removed by volunteers. I very much doubt it is done in a safe way.
The pheasants we’re eaten for a long undetected

There are lots of mammals that probably do more harm and need to be culled….. yet here we are!

You'll never get it. Love is a many splendoured thing.

Re-wilding is not the panacea you seem to think. How would you control the deer or numbers of other species? Nature needs managing!

www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/27/dutch-rewilding-experiment-backfires-as-thousands-of-animals-starve

I am 100% sure you have not only no idea what you are talking about, but no interest whatsoever in finding out. Why don't you do the research on stalking? Talk to people, read the studies, actually study it in an unbiased manner and THEN form an opinion rather than basing it on hyperbole and prejudice? The worst that could happen is you confirm what you already think, but you would be coming from a standpoint of having the facts at your disposal. Actual facts, not half arse Googling.

I believe that culling may be necessary. I believe that shooting might be the least bad way.

Someone has to do it. They should be deeply ashamed of their job and should probably tell other people that they're an estate agent or a lawyer or a banker.

Anyone in the public eye who thinks that it i worth the risk of being found to be doing it has incredibly poor judgement and low morals.

For fucks sake, if you live in rural Scotland you must know wolves are generally scared of people and avoid???

Why on earth would someone living in Scotland automatically know that @Doubtmyself!? There haven't been wild wolves in Scotland since the 1600s! 😂

Deer reproduce very fast, with no natural predators in the uk these days. Forests would suffer if they weren't managed. We eat venison sometime. It is likely the most humanely killed meat you can eat.

People with no understanding of life outside certain English cities trying to impose their views on everyone else and being so arrogant that they don't realise all they are showing is their ignorance.

This. They always pop up on threads about any kind of animal, and their ignorance shows right from the get go. They seem to live in some kind of fantasy land, where the animals are all friends and when the time comes they just lie down and die peacefull, and land management is something they simply don't understand. As you said, arrogant is the word to describe them, as apparently they know more than those who actually live in the countryside and grow up understanding it.

Now you are spoiling the fun, of course no one in the royal family is actually interested in introducing ethical solutions. Not when one can earn serious money on shoots and have a jolly day out pretending to be conservationists.

I wonder how much the local farmers are consulted about rewilding? When my DH lived in Norway, farmers regularly blew up beaver dams because they flooded their fields.
And, to repeat a point, are all you posters talking about the 'barbarity' of deer culling aware of how much animal suffering goes into our food? That male chicks are shredded once their sex is determined? And that's just a start.