Question for those who get called out to dispatch injured Deer.

[Colster]

I was driving back from in-laws a couple of weeks ago and came upon a police car with a copper stood in front of it standing in front of an injured Muntjac. I got out and spoke to the policeman who said he had been stood there for over an hour trying to get hold of a Deer Warden to come and dispatch the poor thing.

 

I said that I had a licence to dispatch and offered to go back to father-in-law's and get his shotgun, the policeman jumped at the offer, so I did the deed and he took my name and address and asked if I could be called upon again if necessary. I agreed and last night had my first call out. It was only a mile or two up the road but the deer had died before I could get there.

 

My question was what do you guys load up with when going out to one of these calls? I hadn't given it a lot of thought until the call actually came through, then I was caught between taking too much and delaying me actually getting to the scene.

 

In the end went with:

 

12B Shotgun

.22LR with a bipod

Lamp

Couple of knives

Dog

 

Toyed with the idea of taking the .243 too in case I couldn't get close but decided against it in the end.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Colster

[12borejimbo]

I would of probably took the same as you, we get asked to deal with injured or sick farm animals, most of the time we use a .22lr or the .22 hornet, all depends, I think a shotgun would be a bit messy at close range, 10 yards with a .22 to the head will do the job just right!

[apache]

I use a shotgun as my tool of choice. 12G with any cartridge you like but I normally use 30g of number 6 as I have plenty. I also take a few SG's in case I can't get close enough,m but have never needed to use them in anger.

 

The Deer Initiative has a best practice guide that lists equipment you should take

 

http://www.thedeerinitiative.co.uk/pdf/guide_culling_vehicleCollisions10-9-08%20published.pdf

 

Also make sure you are insured. The BASC offers free humane dispatch insurance on the return of a form:

 

http://www.basc.org.uk/download.cfm/docid/07C047C8-0B23-4CA2-847D8FAACAA3EF8C

 

Beware the possibility of a .22RF ricochet.

 

Drag carcase to side of road and inform local authority next day.

[dicehorn]

I was driving back from in-laws a couple of weeks ago and came upon a police car with a copper stood in front of it standing in front of an injured Muntjac. I got out and spoke to the policeman who said he had been stood there for over an hour trying to get hold of a Deer Warden to come and dispatch the poor thing.

 

I said that I had a licence to dispatch and offered to go back to father-in-law's and get his shotgun, the policeman jumped at the offer, so I did the deed and he took my name and address and asked if I could be called upon again if necessary. I agreed and last night had my first call out. It was only a mile or two up the road but the deer had died before I could get there.

 

My question was what do you guys load up with when going out to one of these calls? I hadn't given it a lot of though until the call actually came through, then I was caught between taking too much and delaying me actually getting to the scene.

 

In the end went with:

 

12B Shotgun

.22LR with a bipod

Lamp

Couple of knives

Dog

 

Toyed with the idea of taking the .243 too in case I couldn't get close but decided against it in the end.

 

Certainly not picking holes in what you are doing, but have you considered your position if you are called upon to dispatch a deer as a result of a RTA and upon arrival said deer has crawled through roadside hedge and is stood in someones field - even with police in attendance if you enter field with rifle this is armed trespass unless at 3 am you are prepared to establish whoes field, where they live and their reaction to being woken at this time for temperary permission to dispatch. Say all this as a friend had a complaint against him for shooting a deer in similar cercumstances and the same copper who asked him to attend the deer duly knocked on his door about his armed trespass. Sorry but I would not involve myself in this - AFAIK Avon & Som force use their own people re deer collisions

 

PS. rim fire or 410 are about the best tools for this situation.

[inthedark]

I'm sure there's a law about shooting on the highway?

And I'd use a .410

[yankeedoodlepigeon]

Certainly not picking holes in what you are doing, but have you considered your position if you are called upon to dispatch a deer as a result of a RTA and upon arrival said deer has crawled through roadside hedge and is stood in someones field - even with police in attendance if you enter field with rifle this is armed trespass unless at 3 am you are prepared to establish whoes field, where they live and their reaction to being woken at this time for temperary permission to dispatch. Say all this as a friend had a complaint against him for shooting a deer in similar cercumstances and the same copper who asked him to attend the deer duly knocked on his door about his armed trespass. Sorry but I would not involve myself in this - AFAIK Avon & Som force use their own people re deer collisions

 

PS. rim fire or 410 are about the best tools for this situation.

 

 

What was the outcome of this?

[apache]

I'm sure there's a law about shooting on the highway?

And I'd use a .410

The biggest area of confusion and ignorance amongst shooters

 

In England & Wales it is an offence without lawful authority or reasonable excuse to discharge any firearm within fifty feet of the centre of a highway which consists of or comprises a carriageway, and in consequence a user of the carriageway is injured, interrupted or endangered.

 

You can legally decoy pigeon on the central reservation of the M6

[njc110381]

I'd say a copper asking you to do it would be both lawful authority and reasonable excuse. If not the former, certainly the latter.

 

I've never done it but if I was called out I'd probably take my combi gun and my moderated .410.

[kent]

its a minefield, be ultra careful what you do and make sure you have good insurance. Don't take this the wrong way but if you need to ask the question examine if you should be doing it at all, do he wrong thing and you can find yourelf in court. Contact the BDS and speak to training

[bigpete]

How/where could I sign up to make myself available to do this?

[bigpete]

And how do i get this license?

[kent]

How/where could I sign up to make myself available to do this?

 

best not to imo

[kent]

And how do i get this license?

 

 

there aint one and the cops can't authorise anyone to break the law, examine that one before you jump into the slurry pit that humane dispatch can become.

[apache]

I enjoy my shooting, but this is not a part of the job I like. You usually end up in a situation where there are well meaning members of the public upset, police sometimes there, often not. Everything you do is being scrutinised by all the onlookers. It's not a nice thing to have to do, and I fail to see why people want to do it.

 

The best calls are when a member of the public or RSPCA ring up and ask me to go and have a look on my own. Sadly the deer has usually made off to die in cover in these cases.

 

Follow 'Kent's' salient advice.

[Redgum]

Came across a similar problem a while back, a fallow buck had become entangled in a security fence on the inside of a local factories premises.It was a bank holiday so nobody was contactable, I was called, but of course it would be trespass with firearm, I phoned the police and fair play to them they shot it within the hour. A word of warning, apart from all the legal issues with putting yourself forward to dispatch injured deer you will spend alot of time,usually very late/early in the day on wasted trips were the deer has decided to jump up and die elsewhere.

[Dekers]

And how do i get this license?

 

 

Not a clue but I suspect he may be talking a condition on his FAC.

 

Nevertheless, this is totally superfluous since the Deer Act Amendment, you do NOT need any condition to humanely despatch Deer (you do not even need a Deer shooting condition on your FAC)!

 

Edited August 29, 2011 by Dekers

[apache]

Not a clue but I suspect he may be talking a condition on his FAC.

 

Nevertheless, this is totally superfluous since the Deer Act Amendment, you do NOT need any condition to humanely despatch Deer!

 

obviously your FAC needs a 'humane destruction' condition

[Dekers]

obviously your FAC needs a 'humane destruction' condition

 

 

Nope, not for Deer, that was the whole point of some of the Amendment, people stood around with the wrong calibre and no condition watching them suffer.

 

NO Humane despatch condition is required (NO deer condition at all is required for Humane despatch) and you can now use whatever you want to hasten the demise of an injured deer (it doesn't even have to be a gun)! Don't get this confused with Slaughtering!

 

 

The Regulatory Reform (Deer) (England and Wales) Order 2007

 

General exceptions to certain provisions of the Deer Act 1991

3.—(1) Section 6 of the 1991 Act (general exceptions to certain provisions of this Act) is amended as follows.

 

(2) After subsection (2), insert—

 

“(2A) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under section 2 or section 3 above by reason of taking or killing a deer that he reasonably believes—

 

(a)has been deprived in any way (other than by an unlawful taking or killing by that person) of a female deer on which it was dependent; or.

(b)is about to be deprived, by death from disease or a lawful taking or killing, of a female deer on which it is dependent.”..

(3) For subsection (4), substitute—

 

“(4) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under section 4(1) or (2) above by reason of the use of any reasonable means for the purpose of killing any deer if he reasonably believes that the deer has been so seriously injured, otherwise than by his unlawful act, or is in such condition, that to kill it is an act of mercy.”.

 

(4) After subsection (4), insert—

 

“(4A) In subsection (4) above, “any reasonable means” means any method of killing a deer that can reasonably be expected to result in rapid loss of consciousness and death and which is appropriate in all the circumstances (including in particular what the deer is doing, its size, its distance from the closest position safely attainable by the person attempting to kill the deer and its position in relation to vegetative cover).”.

Edited August 29, 2011 by Dekers

[Redgum]

And if the deer isnt in to dangerous a state and you know what your doing a knife will do a perfectly good job, the crowd may not be pleased though

[Colster]

I know I don't "need" a condition to dispatch deer (especially as I used a shotgun the first time anyway) but I do have such a condition on my FAC and it seemed a good enough way to start the conversation with the police officer rather than just walking up saying "hey there, mate. Want me to kill that for you?"

 

How/where could I sign up to make myself available to do this?

My involvement came after coming across a copper stood by a wounded deer. He asked if he could put my name on a register (I assume along with local deer wardens). If you're interested in being added, I'd ring your FLO. As some have said it's not a pleasant job but I don't like to think of an animal that does not like human contact being surrounded by well-intentioned onlookers while it is scared, in pain and unable to move.

[CharlieT]

Nope, not for Deer, that was the whole point of some of the Amendment, people stood around with the wrong calibre and no condition watching them suffer.

 

NO Humane despatch condition is required (NO deer condition at all is required for Humane despatch) and you can now use whatever you want to hasten the demise of an injured deer (it doesn't even have to be a gun)! Don't get this confused with Slaughtering!

 

 

The Regulatory Reform (Deer) (England and Wales) Order 2007

 

General exceptions to certain provisions of the Deer Act 1991

3.—(1) Section 6 of the 1991 Act (general exceptions to certain provisions of this Act) is amended as follows.

 

(2) After subsection (2), insert—

 

“(2A) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under section 2 or section 3 above by reason of taking or killing a deer that he reasonably believes—

 

(a)has been deprived in any way (other than by an unlawful taking or killing by that person) of a female deer on which it was dependent; or.

(b)is about to be deprived, by death from disease or a lawful taking or killing, of a female deer on which it is dependent.”..

(3) For subsection (4), substitute—

 

“(4) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under section 4(1) or (2) above by reason of the use of any reasonable means for the purpose of killing any deer if he reasonably believes that the deer has been so seriously injured, otherwise than by his unlawful act, or is in such condition, that to kill it is an act of mercy.”.

 

(4) After subsection (4), insert—

 

“(4A) In subsection (4) above, “any reasonable means” means any method of killing a deer that can reasonably be expected to result in rapid loss of consciousness and death and which is appropriate in all the circumstances (including in particular what the deer is doing, its size, its distance from the closest position safely attainable by the person attempting to kill the deer and its position in relation to vegetative cover).”.

 

 

However, The Regulatory Reform (Deer) (England and Wales) Order 2007 does not override the conditions of ones FAC.

 

So, bearing this in mind, one does actually need "deer" or "humane dispatch" as a condition on ones FAC.

[Vince Green]

Personally I would just drive past and not get involved.

[TJ91]

we do sheep and calves with the 410

barrel to back of head, no mess at all and its dead as soon as i pull the trigger

 

i have put a deer out of its misery (my mum hit it), there was police who allowed me to do it, i hate to see an animal suffer...BUT.. i wouldnt want to have to do it again, with a crowd of people (some emotional people) it isnt a nice job

[kent]

Came across a similar problem a while back, a fallow buck had become entangled in a security fence on the inside of a local factories premises.It was a bank holiday so nobody was contactable, I was called, but of course it would be trespass with firearm, I phoned the police and fair play to them they shot it within the hour. A word of warning, apart from all the legal issues with putting yourself forward to dispatch injured deer you will spend alot of time,usually very late/early in the day on wasted trips were the deer has decided to jump up and die elsewhere.

 

A trained dog is esential in this task, seriously people its a can of worms. In the OP posision 95% of shooters would do the same so familirise yourself with how. You will not always be treated well by all, some think it better to stroke the poor animal and await Rolf Harris- dont think i am kidding here. Sometimes you come away a bit emotionally charged by the actions of others and the circumstances you witness its not always just injured deer you see at these insidents. I do it only because i can be the quickest solution, live with deer around me, am very qualified but above all like, understand and respect the deer

[al4x]

so why do you need a dog for a deer tangled in a fence Kent?

 

Personally that is a situation where a shotgun is the ideal solution, we had a big fallow stuck with a heap of baler twine round its antlers and that had got wrapped round a tree. Getting anywhere near it wasn't an option and a 20b did the job with minimum extra distress to the deer. Bearing in mind it looked like it had been there days release even had we been able to hold it down wasn't an option. Knives are fine but beware if the policeman doesn't understand things and you botch it you run the risk of getting nicked for causing unnecessary suffering. Its best left for scenarios where there is no one watching.