On Sun, 03 May 2015 11:59:52 +0100, Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:
[]
and culling by a trained marksman is surely more humane that being
chased, brought down and gored to death by a lynx.

Ye gods and little fishes - just HOW many errors can you introduce into
a simple sentence? The most problematic deer are muntjac and roe, which
are woodland animals - dense cover in the first case - and both live in
densely populated areas, including suburbia (especially the former).
There are also damn-few people in the UK who know how to shoot safely
under such conditions - and a much larger pool of 'trained marksmen' who
are little better than official and trigger happy gunsels (e.g. police
firearms officers). We SO want such people firing high-velocity 0.24"+
rounds in such places!

Also, lynx do not have horns, are not cursory predators, and kill (like
most cats) by biting the throat, leading to a quick death or escape.
They also kill the old, ill and weak animals, reducing the number that
die a lingering death, unlike hunters who prefer healthy animals.

And, on another topic, lynx are very shy and almost never eat pets in
the areas where they coexist. I agree that the hysteria of the
seriously ignorant British public would be a major problem, as would the
objections of those who breed peasants, sorry, pheasants for slaughter.
And, no, I am not one of the "Don't shoot the little birdies" brigade -
I have done it myself, but not like that.

Our woodlands are facing a catastrophe, and so are many of the woodland
birds and animals, because of the uncontrolled deer population. In the
1950s, it was kept down by farm dogs roaming free at night (and shooting
them with shotguns), but they have got out of control since that
stopped. We desperately need lynx back, and we need them back NOW.


That's a good post, and I agree with all of it, so I didn't snip it.
Those of use that live with deer love them, but there need to be far
fewer.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy