Following the news that the badger cull will go ahead, a group of scientists has now advised, through a study, that around half of the UK's growing deer population needs to be shot every year in order to stop the devastation of woodlands and birdlife.
As the estimated 1.5 million strong deer population has no natural predator anymore, the researchers suggest the expansion of the population of deer is threatening biodiversity as well as causing road traffic accidents and crop damage.
If this plan goes ahead, the RSPCA has commented that any cull must be carried out in a humane and controlled way and supported by science. Researchers from the University of East Anglia suggest creating a venison market to make a cull ethically and economically acceptable.
Dr Paul Dolman, ecologist at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the research said, "Deer are implicated as the major cause of unfavourable conditions in terms of woodland structure and regeneration. There is evidence that deer reduce the number of woodland birds - especially some of our much loved migrant birds species like Blackcap and Nightingale, and resident species like Willow Tit. We have a problem."
He added, "We are not killing something and then incinerating the carcass - what we are talking about is harvesting a wild animal to supply wild free-ranging venison for our tables - for farm shops, for gastro pubs. What we are advocating isn't removing deer from the countryside - what we are advocating is trying to get on top of the deer population explosion and try to control the problems that are being caused."
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