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

My feelings about this would depend entirely on knowing how good a shot PW is. If he is a decent shot, then fair enough- it's an unpleasant job and I wouldn't do it (I'm the worst possible shot, so I make sure I'm never holding a gun). If he is inept, then I can only hope he has a good gamekeeper with him who can step in rather than let an animal suffer and die slowly.

Where I live, deer populations are causing all sorts of problems. I once had to call out a midwife in an emergency and had to wait an extra hour because a stag attacked her car! There was also a study conducted in my area about the correlation between deer and Lyme disease, which found a huge increase in ticks (which carry the disease) where the deer population was higher. That's without the problems of damage to property, concerns for children in areas where deer come right in to the houses, and of course the welfare of the deer themselves once there are too many of them for the available food sources to support.

Perhaps he feels that it is his responsibility to help with this, since his family owns the land? I don't know. Some people enjoy shooting, so perhaps he likes it. But the fact remains that the job needs to be done.

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But that is exactly what does happen.

How do you know he is not skilled? He is not just some Rand m is he. More pearl clutching from a typical random with zero knowledge on the net.

Deer need to be culled across the whole of the UK. Their over-population in the absence of a natural predator is a serious problem, even in southern England.

But townies gonna townie.

Do you eat venison? Do you eat any meat?

Deer need to be culled. I'd much rather be shot out in the wild than taken to an abattoir.

Good, I’m glad they’re being culled. There’s far too many of them. So what if it’s a nice day out for some.

Venison is delicious and good for you. Deer are beautiful but also pests that destroy trees and crops. I'd rather eat venison from a deer that had been culled in this way and lived an otherwise normal life than eggs from battery hens or meat from an intensively farmed animal that had been slaughtered in an abattoir. A lot of the people here won't be purchasing higher welfare meat because it is too expensive, you are contributing to much more unpleasant conditions for animals than a well-run deer management programme is.

I notice all those defending hunting deer are ignoring the comments from those who know about this sport and are pointing out this is not about culling.
How can it be culling when deer are often fed over the winter to keep numbers artificially high? They are fed so that estates can keep numbers high and charge rich people money to kill them. Killing deer is a profitable business.

TBH OP all your doing is showing your lack of understanding of land management, conservation programmes and how wildlife needs to be managed with what clearly is just a royal family rant!

Deer culling is necessary as others have pointed out they damage tree planting projects and the populations are out of control with no natural predators.
The deer culled then go into the food chain and venison is regularly sold in butchers around here. They are not left to waste. There is also strict controls in the seasons so Doe's can't be shot at certain times of year.

Prince William is highly likely to be a clean shot given his upbringing and military.

As for posters saying it's cruel I suggest you look into the actual numbers deer have exploded in population size and its damaging large areas of other habitats which are vital for other endagered species!

Maybe deer do need to be culled (although I note the pp about feeding them in winter to keep numbers up).

If they do need to be culled it could be done entirely by skilled gamekeepers. There is no need for the POW or any other tourist to get involved at all. Except that they enjoy it and so will pay for it.

I can’t get my head around anyone who gets entertainment from killing animals.

The National Trust probably cull more deer than anyone else in England. Maybe those who are against culling should start by attacking them rather than Prince William. Deer culling and conservation go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other.

That's not clear at all. Vegan isn't the big moral win people like to think...a locally based sustainable diet that often includes animal products is a better moral choice.

I think this would be traumatising for a 7 year old. Who takes a small child to watch hundreds of birds being killed? I am curious as to why hunting is so important to them, so that children must be hardened to it at an early age. It's almost compulsory in the family, but I don't understand why. Do they want to be rulers of nature as well as people or something like that?

Why performance?

He wasn't filmed doing it and he went on his own.

I don't like it, but I bow to the more knowledgeable folk as to why it's necessary

This

The faux and misguided outrage on here is laughable. The fact they are royals are completely irrelevant, they are land owners responsibility managing their land, and deer need culling.

Any other argument is a lack of understanding for land management and a distinct lack of understanding.

We don't mention the feeding of deer in the winter to keep numbers higher so we can "cull" them in better weather

Is it better to leave animals to starve to death than to kill them quickly and humanely? Really? Of course the ideal is that the populations don't ever reach that level, but they have and I don't think that not feeding deer will help. Also, starving deer are more likely to find their way towards houses, and there are dangers in that.

I'm always amazed how people don't realise that the Royal Family are aristocrats. They have the tastes and attitudes of their class. They like hunting, mistresses, servants and they wouldn't go near most of us with a bargepole. They think they have a right to rule over the plebs and they think it's a shame we lost the Empire.

Of course they like hunting, they have massive estates and that's what you do on them.

Personally I like the idea of rewilding to reduce numbers of animals like deer - see what reintroduction of wolves has done for Yellowstone Park in the US, it's amazing. The landscape can change completely with the reintroduction of predators.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/yellowstone-wolves-reintroduction-helped-stabilize-ecosystem

If you eat meat, and saw what goes on in abattoirs, you will quickly realise how much better hunting and shooting an animal in it's natural habitat is far kinder on the animal.

I had my horses shot. It was time, they were old and increasingly in pain. I could have got the vet out to inject with a sedative which would have been stressful for them. If you have ever seen an animal shot cleanly, in it's habitat, you will understand there is no suffering. No stress for the animal, there is just nothing. It's kind.

There is no cruelty in stalking an animal. There is often immense cruelty in modern farming methods, including psychological cruelty.

People who have issues with traditional control methods in the countryside should probably, with respect, piss off back to the city.

Quite simply they are teaching him about the facts of life and how to manage estates. If you understand anything about nature it's brutal and it's a fight for survival.

To many people are so detached from nature and how the natural world functions they have unrealistic view of the world which is quite simply laughable.

Learning about life and death is an important lesson no matter what age you start.

What bothers me isn't so much the fact that wildlife needs to be managed and that, very sadly, means that culling sometimes needs to happen.

It's the fact that rich entitled wankers people treat it as a sport and seem to get off on the bloodshed and suffering they cause.

@BigglyBee yep there was a deer problem in a part of Aberdeen not that long ago!

I think many people have a romantic view of deer running wild in hills merrily on their way surroundedby heather......yes this does happen but they are also found in parks, towns, across crop fields and running across motorways!

I must admit, I much preferred MN when the Royal (ahem) fans hadn't discovered it. Surely there must be a royal website where they can all go and discuss how much they love certain people with lots of money whilst hating other people with lots of money?
This is just plain idiotic. So I'm not bothered about hunting therefore I am a fan of the Royal Family? Just give your head a wobble, some brains might fall into place.

Most wild animals do not have their populations artificially supported by feeding them to survive the winter, then selling shooting rights so wealthy people can kill them. But for some reason we do it for pheasants, deer etc.

It's preposterous - surely you see that? It's not land management, its sport. Land management and conservation would benefit most from rewilding.

Nature is about balance. Some animals will perish in winter, some will be eaten by predators - the ecosystem fares best when humans do not intervene.