Definition of deer welfare - welfare is about ensuring the mental and physical well-being of deer through the use of various management methods. The culling of any animal, if it is done humanely as part of a management process, should not raise welfare issues. The welfare of wild deer must be considered in the context of the environment in which they live and in a way which takes into account the varying degrees of moral responsibility placed on those who manage them. At one end of the scale of responsibility are farmed animals such as sheep and cows. These animals are owned and with that ownership comes a moral responsibility to ensure, through various methods, that they live a healthy life. Animals living wild are at the other end of the scale. They are owned by nobody and therefore nobody has a direct legal or moral responsibility for them. Deer fall somewhere in between the two. Many wild animals in Scotland are managed to some extent. Reasons for this include human sporting activities and/or for consumption - stocking rivers for angling, management of heather moorland for grouse, etc. Wild animals are also managed for conservation reasons such as the careful movement of kites to establish new populations, or for reasons based on welfare such as the feeding of garden birds. In some instances the management is carried out for reasons of human economic gain while in other instances the motive is for the benefit of the environment, biodiversity or for the welfare of the animals themselves. A useful guiding principle in the management of free-living deer is that the greater the level of management (or the degree of intervention) and the greater the extent to which this is for human benefit, the greater the moral responsibility those involved have for the welfare of the deer. Landowners and occupiers are responsible for preventing welfare problems - for example by controlling the size of a deer population to levels which can be reliably sustained by the natural habitat in which they live. As far as is reasonably possible, they should also tackle specific problems which could compromise welfare such as culling diseased or injured deer. It may be difficult to judge at which point to deal with problems affecting welfare but this is a matter of individual judgement. Various kinds of interventions are made in the management of deer including fencing, supplementary feeding, the management of the natural habitat and culling. Each intervention may have an impact on deer welfare and careful decisions are required to ensure these impacts are beneficial. Where deer management interventions carry a risk of adversely affecting deer welfare, those involved need to carefully assess ways of minimising or mitigate this. The design of the intervention should be refined to minimise the number of animals affected and the degree to which they are affected. The treatment of injured or diseased wild deer is generally not done for welfare reasons. The nature of the environment in which deer live and the fact that they are wild animals would create serious logistical problems in terms of administering and maintaining treatments. Attempting to administer treatments would simply prolong the animal's suffering and for this reason humane euthanasia is the accepted course of action.
