Deer hunting and welfare

Sir, Bradshaw and Bateson (2000a) wrote ‘overall we judge that the welfare costs associated with hunting red deer were higher than those associated with stalking and reducing the welfare costs associated with hunting was much less feasible than reducing those associated with stalking’. Others have reached the opposite conclusion (eg Harris et al [1999]; Wise [1999]; and submissions by Geist, Denny and Marriage to the Burns Inquiry and recorded in the CD published with Burns et al [2000]). Savage et al (1993) concluded that the communal hunting methods which regard the deer as a valued and respected quarry species, should lie at the heart of the management of the herds.