The Deer Cull: Making Our Parks Look Dull?

Last week marked the beginning of the biannual deer cull, which takes place in both Richmond and Bushy Parks in order to control the population of deer in such areas, with authorities citing sustainability reasons. However this year more concern and debate has surrounded the issue with protesters ignoring the increasingly frosty nights to make their views known outside the gates of Richmond Park on Monday night.

Deer have long been a staggering sight and cause of great excitement in local parks and countryside across the country, with their frequency of appearance and infuriating habit of atrocious road-crossing aptitude leading them to be likened to the more exotic if less elegant Australian kangaroo. It is possible that we take them for granted now and much opposition to the culls has been grounded on the need to preserve the good fortune that has befallen us to enable locals to see these shy, inoffensive animals at such close proximity.

Meetings have been taking place this week to discuss possible alternatives to shooting the animals in order to contain numbers, a method which has seen over 1,200 deer shot dead in the past six years with a further 237 expected to be removed in this year’s cull. Suggestions have been raised about simply re-locating the deer to less congested environments but perhaps a more popular argument is whether there is any need to control the number of deer that are innocuously enriching the landscape of our local countryside. A simple study in natural biology shows that any species within a limited habitat and environment will reach a peak population when their environment can no longer sustain rising numbers, without any outside interference from men with guns.

Concern has also arisen over the scandalous possibility that such culls take place simply to feed the Royal Park’s financial gain through the sale of deer carcasses as venison meat. This claim has been denied and a counterargument launched. Authorities say that it is unfortunately a necessary evil in order to control what would otherwise in fact be an uncontrollable population. Although the deer are still technically a wild species, their habitat is no longer so. The deer are now so well protected and looked after in their local habitats that they have no threatening predators and their food supplies are in no danger of running out therefore there is no contributing factor that would lead to a boundary population being reached. In this instance local councils must become their predators instead, in order to maintain and sustain a balanced ecosystem.

Debates and meetings will be continuous in the coming weeks and there is no certainty that a satisfactory conclusion will be reached for either party and whether there is enough pressure on local councils in order for them to change their policies is in doubt. Yet there are no reservations that both sides will be hoping that deer can continue to be a focal point of British wildlife for years to come.