Towards the end of last year a video surfaced on social media which showed an incident in which a stag was wounded and then left to struggle in a loch for a while until it finally sank. The soundtrack of the video included laughter as the stag struggled and congratulations for shooting it. It can be viewed on The Ferret YouTube channel here.

Complaints were made to the police and to the British Deer Society (BDS) which oversees humane deer control. The BDS issued a statement part of which we reproduce below:

“We were disappointed that someone who is as well-regarded in the deer world as Niall Rowantree did not stop the incident from being filmed. We all have a duty to ensure we do not bring our community into disrepute and the footage, with its accompanying commentary, was distressing and distasteful and clearly upset many people who viewed it.”  

The statement was apparently made in response to a query from the Field Sports Channel whose website contains the following comment:

“The film shocked some deerstalkers but, maybe more shocking, is that some of them complained to the police about the video, which shows a stag shot in water on the West Coast of Scotland. For the stalker Fraser Macdonald and guide Niall Rowantree, it has been four difficult months, not knowing whether a campaign started by fellow deerstalkers and whipped up by antis would result in police action.” 

It is interesting that the concern of the BDS seems to be not that someone allowed the incident to happen but that they allowed it to be filmed. The Field Sports channel seems to acknowledge that some deer stalkers were shocked but seems to be more concerned that they complained to the police about it.

So where is the respect for the quarry that we hear so much about? There doesn’t seem to be any just a view that you can be as brutal as you like but don’t film it and don’t break ranks and complain to the police when you have concerns about the behaviour of others in the industry.