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

The hunt near my family's farm was not popular. Various farmers tried to ban them from their land as the dogs killed livestock. But the hunt always claimed they could not stop the dogs running over land.
If you did that in the City the dogs would be destroyed. But because it is rich people it is acceptable.

You have to look at the people spreading this ‘Chris did it himself’ nonsense. It shouldn’t be allowed. Those with a desire for fox hunting to continue and Chris to shut up and go away. Dodgy AF. I don’t think Chris Packham is the sort to be silenced but the lies shouldn’t be allowed.

Professional culling is fine. In spite of the accusations by some that we all just want to save cuddly animals, many of us live in rural areas and are well-versed with the realities of rural life.
That also means we can spot the bullshit that equates professional culling with the aristocracy and rich people stalking and killing deer - mainly stags - as sport.

@RainMakerShaker No, hopefully a conclusive investigation will shut that down.

Ha. As I thought. @Scrowy is a farmer. Shocker. And casually mentioning that Chris was somehow involved in damaging his own property, not the fox hunting lot. Disgusting. They’ve tried to bully and silence him for years. Shameful.

Those accusing Chris Packham of setting fire to his own barn should be in court for slander. Packham has been outspoken about many of the terrible land management practices carried out for profit and sport. Many of the rich and aristocrats hate him as a result. He knows what he is talking about.

The hunt have savaged multiple family pets where we live, the dogs are wild and out of control. It is so dangerous. No one would should be supporting any of this in modern times. The medics around here take an extremely dim view of the hospitals being clogged with very avoidable injuries and fractured skulls, broken ribs and terrified ponies and horses.

WTAF is happening that we still allow this! If Labour get in, if they offer to ban all forms of hunting and shooting and barbaric practice I would actually vote for them. The Tories daren't touch it because of their grass root support.

Hunting has consistently been hated by the general public for decades, and still currently at 80% it shouldn't be allowed, and yet it still quietly or not so quietly happens here.

I noticed this thread was shunted into talk to avoid anyone actually reading it...

It still happens because it is rich people who hunt who are in charge of this country.
And yes it is incredibly dangerous. But they keep getting away with it.

@kiss It is shunted into Royal Family section. But if anyone wanted to start a general thread about hunting then it could not be sidelined.

They are in court (for libel not slander I think). I think it was his gates that got singed by the car fire.

The men defending the libel have been given £50,000 to use as a reward for anyone coming forward with information that identifies who set fire to the vehicle outside Chris Packhams House.

They have CCTV footage and a timeline of the vehicles involved. Regardless of what you believe, its clear from the evidence they have (even if they are wrong about Packham having anything to do with it, and I'm perfectly happy to say I think he probably doesnt) that it wasn't just local hunting yobs being dicks and doing something on the spur of the moment.

As I said... its not straightforwardly the case that the hunting lobby set fire to a vehicle outside his house. There's a lot of question marks which are due to be examined in court.

Mostly from being more scared of humans, but if they get hungry enough or too used to humans that fear doesn't work enough. In areas where there are a lot of wolves coming close to houses people can be scared (rightly or wrongly) to let their children or pets out, someone ended up getting the idea to put bite vests on dogs stuffed with chilli to put the wolves off biting the dogs, wonder if it worked.

Interestingly, after reading this conversation about reintroducing apex predators, I read the local news with an article about a man's dog getting attacked by a bear in the forests outside of town, dog got injured and the man thought the bear would attack him too, came at him twice but walked away in the end. Poor guy was terrified. So at least there's no talk about reintroducing bears, that would be a bad idea!

@Natsku I really think reintroducing Wolves to deal with the Deer numbers would be utter madness.

And as you have pointed out in Finland the end up culling the Wolves when their numbers grow or they got too close to the people.

People in the Highland villages and towns matter too, we'd be swapping deer culling for wolf culling.

Not actually getting away from culling wild animals and people at least eat the deer. (And some of the rabbits)

The issue would be if stupid people started feeding them.
I have lived in places with wolves, it was fine. You heard them sometimes, but in spite of trying to, I never actually saw one.

My brother visited Chernobyl where wolves roamed freely, They’ve now moved beyond the borders and some scientists are worried about possible radioactive mutations.

@antelopevalley and there are plenty daft but kind hearted folk who think feeding animals which aren't theirs is a good idea.

I have an intelligent neighbour who seems to like feeding foxes, pigeons and seagulls. I don't know if they feed the squirrels too but it wouldn't surprise me.

I’m not sure if you’re deliberately trying to mislead people about what that case is about or you really don’t know. 🤔 Dodgy AF that you’re putting this narrative out there.

The fire is straightforward. The community have known all along who is responsible. Police were met with a lot of people that lost their tongue or spread vicious rumours like you. Unfounded though.

The Packham 3...lol....of Mr Bean and co is straightforward too. They printed lies about something else and they’ll be sorted in court. They can’t even find the cash to go forward last I heard...cos no one wants to back them.

The first apex predator candidate for reintroduction is the lynx. How many lynx attacks are there in countries where lynx currently live?

I find it fascinating that the lynx is a big cat (and looks like one) and yet an apex predator.

Yes , but your average housecat at that side would probably have no trouble with a deer!
Mine one brought a full sized seagull slice through a cat flap! 😱

God autocorrect! ... size .... alive through cat flap! , it also wanted to correct house cat to housecoat ! 🤦‍♀️

None (or extremely rare) on humans but some attacks on cats and dogs and livestock so that needs taking into account

Imagining a house coat dragging a seagull in through a cat flap

@Natsku 🤣🤣🤣, I'd pay to see that!

@Octomore Studies have shown that lynx prefer sheep to deer. The introduction of sufficient lynx to make a difference would probably mean the end of sheep farming in Scotland. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on your viewpoint.

Also, most of the studies of lynx I have seen talk about predation on roe deer rather than red deer. I don't think a lynx would do so well in attacking adult red deer. A lynx kills between 2 and 7 young deer fawns a month in summer (a female lynx with kittens will kill more than others hence the wide range). Again, it would need a lot of lynx to make an impact on a million population of deer but over a 25 year period, I agree that numbers could be reduced. It would not however be sufficent to stop the need for human culling.