Farmers should be allowed to shoot deer - cllr

Seamus Enright


Frustrations about how the burgeoning deer population is damaging crops, farm infrastructure, presenting a potential bio-security threat, and posing a hazard to motorists were voiced at a recent meeting of Cavan County Council.
The issue was debated on foot of a motion tabled by Sean Smith (FF), who suggested asking the Department of Agriculture ‘to put regulations in place regarding the deer herd’. He said the national deer population is spiralling out of control.
“They may be nice to look at but they leave a trail of disaster behind them,” he said, noting too the argument by some that their mingling with livestock is helping the spread of TB.
Cllr Smith commented: “We cannot allow the herds to grow and grow significantly. The damage is there to see.”

Shoot deer
Fine Gael’s Winston Bennett agreed with the motion, noting that farmers should be allowed to shoot deer where a clear case of damage being done to agricultural infrastructure is found.
“There are places deer have never been seen before, and now we are regularly seeing them,” added John Paul Feeley (FF), who stated that in a road traffic collision with a deer, “no one is responsible and the motorist is left with a significant cost”.
Peter McVitty (FG) and Shane P O’Reilly (FF) also commented on the motion, who argued that deer in Ireland is not an endangered species like the pine martin.
The motion was passed and a letter voicing councillors’ concerns will be forwarded to the Department of Agriculture in due course.