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

This reminds me of the outrage by some posters over the Bearskin hats the Coldstream Guards wear.
I’m paraphrasing now “It’s cruel”, “Why can’t synthetic fabric be used” are Just some of the comments I remember.
On average 15.000 black bears are culled in Canada. I say average because one report says 20.000 another said 10.000. If not culled the country would be over run with Black bears. There’s a bear population of 500.000, that’s an awful lot of bears.
100 pelts are used for the Bearskin hats. Just 100 out of 15.000.

OP, I think we need to ascertain first of all - do you understand the need for/reasons behind deer culling?

So the point of the amateur, like members of the royal family, is.....?????? Blood thirsty psychopaths.

Your stock example of one is not terribly interesting. Have you seen a shoot?

@MogandBunny

there has to be balance, Deer have no natural predators, I absolutely love wolves but our forests aren’t big enough to contain them.

my local national park is surrounded by sheep, so wolves would definitely not work.

You think being chased until exhausted then bitten to death is more pleasant than a shot or two coming out of nowhere, with no chasing?

Are you a vegetarian? I am. But I would much more happily eat a stalked deer or shot pheasant than a cruelly-produced chicken.

Red deer have no natural predators here since bears and wolves became extinct. If left to their own devices, they would over-populate and basically, starve - a horrible death. I have no problem with well-trained marksmen sneaking up on them and getting them in one go. Honestly, if you knew how meat is commercially produced...you wouldn't complain.

How can you call it a sick, perverted hobby? How do you imagine meat gets on to people's plates? Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry don't die in care homes...they are transported pretty brutally, starved before slaughter and then we just have to hope that the abbatoir makes the killing process as humane as possible.

I don't eat meat, but I know which type I'd prefer!!!

Thanks fyn I didn't know that.

I don’t have a problem with hunting. I have a problem with animals raised in farms where their life is torture. So unless you’re vegan I dont think you can say anything

I find that people in the country find it very hard to accept that people in the cities are entitled to have moral positions that show greater civility than country dwellers.

Yes, that’s exactly what I said upthread.

lynx are different, but wolves and bears are not currently feasible even in the proposed reintroduction areas.

This

I hope everyone here who’s spitting feathers over deer hunting only eats free range grass fed meat that died in its sleep or are vegan🙄

And the dairy industry is cruel too. But let's not think about that.

Exactly

I think that as someone who doesn't eat land based meat I have a right to feel morally superior to those who are more responsible than I am for the misery that happens on farms. Obviously I am far from perfect and don't go around proclaiming my moral superiority. But it is clear veganism > vegetarianism > pescatarianism > meat eater > people who eat lots of meat

Unfortunately the area required for successful rewilding is larger than the land available so it can't happen in this country. It has also failed in North America and Canada where there are vast areas of uninhabited forest, how on earth do you think it could work here?

You also haven't explained how you would control the deer numbers. How many bears would you need? There are a million deer in Scotland alone. Most prey animals would eat the young deer rather than the adults. Each European bear may consume a few deer fawns each year but 90% of their diet is plant based. We would have to introduce a huge number of preditors to have any impact at all on the deer population.

Deer need to be culled. You don’t want to do it? Fine, no one is asking you to.

Populations need to be managed- what would your alternative suggestion be? Aside from starving the population back down?

I am sensing Williams people are not that keen on him being called a blood thirsty psychopath when they have worked so bloody hard to produce their hologram of ‘caring conservationist’.

I say that as someone that supports/supported the monarchy - but I can’t support them any longer if they continue to participate and therefore support pure blood sports.

It wasn’t so long ago when the RF were hunting big game including endangered species in Africa.

It really needs to stop.

Support for deer hunting by the plebs relies on you not noticing the contradictions.

• We only "cull" because there are too many deer
• We don't mention the feeding of deer in the winter to keep numbers higher so we can "cull" them in better weather

• There are too many deer that cause too much damage
• Only the non toffs are happy to climb far into the hills and stalk deer for hours to find these elusive deer

• It is all about keeping numbers down
• We prefer to kill stags with great big antlers than smaller females which makes far more sense for "Culling"

Anyone who supports deer hunting and argues culling, ask them if the deer are fed by humans over the winter to keep numbers higher.
This is a sport. People who enjoy stalking the largest stags and shooting them.

Another example of ‘culling’

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/royals-bloody-trophy-hunting-past-23410242.amp

You're really not engaging with any other posters, are you kissingfrogs

I wouldn't mind if deer were culled by e.g. shooting and not hunting, same for foxes.

I would have thought people who live rurally have a smidgen of knowledge about predators in general, like seperating fact from fairy tales. Guess I was wrong.

where I live a number of unexplained fatal crashes have been attributed to deer wandering onto the roads, as well as the obvious known crashes. We have flashing deer road signs, but increasing populations mean they wander onto roads far away from the park, I met one on the roads at dawn about 8 miles from the park. Very dangerous