DCS

Responsibility of Care for the welfare of wild deer

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Why focus on the welfare of wild deer?

The two key reasons are:

  • To take account of the principle that increasing management intervention with wild deer imposes an increasing responsibility for their welfare;
  • The general public, as in other sectors, might reasonably expect the deer sector to have a common understanding of their responsibility to safeguard the welfare of wild deer.

A ‘Responsibility of Care’ would identify and articulate the broad management responsibilities for welfare.  

What are current perceptions of deer welfare?

Perceptions on what constitutes wild deer ‘welfare’ are varied, confused and at times unclear. This is in part because deer welfare has always been considered an implicit part of deer management and has never been explicitly defined or articulated.
Recently, however, an increased interest in and awareness of ‘welfare’ has led to the expectation that the welfare responsibilities associated with wild deer should be articulated and become an explicit component of deer management. This is in part as a result of the recent Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. Whilst this Act does not encompass wild animals, the thinking, discussions and debate that led up the development and evolution of the Act brought into the spotlight the concept of our responsibility to the welfare of all animals. This raised awareness and resulted in a desire/need to articulate our responsibilities to wild deer. 

Reports on Welfare/Responsibility of Care:

The following background reports on current and developing thinking on responsibilities associated with the welfare of wild deer are on this website. Please click here to download the reports:

ROC1.1.1a: A report on current perception, legal status and expectations with respect to wild deer welfare in Scotland
ROC1.1.1b: A report on current perception, legal status and expectation with respect to deer welfare in other countries
ROC1.1.2: A review of females culled in the close season
ROC1.1.3: A review of data on natural mortality in red and roe deer populations
ROC2.1.1: A report on the potential remit and functions of a Responsibility of Care
ROC3.1.2: A report on potential responsibilities of care for upland red deer

Where are we now?

Stakeholders at the seminar in November identified a number of emerging themes. These have been collated and summarised in a feedback note which is available from the Welfare and Competence main page. These emerging themes are being used, together with the consultant reports, to direct the next stage of project development. The purpose of disseminating and articulating these emerging themes is to give an indication of current thinking on these projects. 

Next Steps

We are planning to hold another seminar in November 2008 to build on the emerging themes from the seminar in November 2007 and to identify practical proposals to deliver the projects on the ground. We will upload further details on this seminar to the website in October 2008.

Further Information:
Should anyone experience any technical difficulties whilst downloading these reports please contact Laura Fenton on 01786 446282 or at laura.fenton@dcs.gov.uk