MTBrider
January 24-2006, 10:19 AM
SESKINORE residents are up in arms this week over the killing by the Forestry Division of deer at the local forest park. The local community association said that it had offered to adopt the animals which were already being cared for by some local residents.
A marksman from the Forestry Service shot three of the deer last week, having culled two elderly animals a few weeks before.
However, one of the Sika deer evaded the official gunman and is now ‘on the run‘ and being fed and supported by local residents.
Despite its protests, the Seskinore Community Association says it has received no explanation for the killings. It demanded to know why the deer were killed when there had been a ‘tacit agreement‘ with the Forestry Service that the animals, which were well loved by local residents, would be left in the care of the community group. Indeed, several people from Seskinore had been feeding the animals over a prolonged period.
One of those, Jim Riddell, said people are very disappointed.
‘We weren‘t informed about it,‘ he said of the deer killing. ‘We had agreed to look after them and had filled out paperwork to the effect that we could look after them.
‘If a fence of the enclosure was damaged, we were quite capable of dealing with that The whole community is saddened.‘
From the BBC:
The reason given for the cull was that a fence was a danger to the safety and welfare of the animals. The herd was then killed.
Mr Riddell said that local school groups and other visitors to Seskinore Forest Park were always delighted to see the deer.
‘Last summer I met a man whose children brought him down every day to see how the baby deer were growing.‘
Mr Riddell said two of the deer were does and he fears that they were in calf and so should not have been culled at all.
Former Omagh District councillor and vice-chairman of the Seskinore Community Association Gerry McMenamin expressed anger at the destruction of the animalsm, saying the deer were an important feature of the community group‘s plans for the area.
‘No one know what the reasoning behind this was,‘ he said. ‘They were lovely animals and attracted a lot of visitors.‘
The chairman of the association‘s sub-committee on development of the forest amenities, Ray McCracken, commented ‘We‘ve attempted to draw up agreements with Forestry Service but they did this very much out of the blue and I think there‘s quite a bit of upset about it.
‘The deer were an integral part of the forest and were likely to be an integral part of the forest operation as far as we could see it from a community point of view. They were an attraction that was already there.‘
Mr McCracken said the community association accepted that there was going to be a cull, but ‘not total annihilation‘.
‘We didn‘t know that there was anything afoot until some of the neighbours heard shots being fired,‘ he said. ‘These were semi-tame deer that were starting to come up to the wire to get fed.
‘We specifically told the department in any discussions we had with them that the deer would have to be kept. This doesn‘t do anything for relations between the community and the Forestry Service or the Department (of Agriculture),‘ said Mr McCracken. ‘It was a poor show. If they had consulted us, they wouldn‘t have got shooting the deer.‘
A spokesperson for the department said, ‘The Forest Service carried out a cull of the Sika deer at Seskinore over December 2005 and January 2006, in line with its planned approach to rationalise the numbers and types of deer held in enclosures on its land.
‘The culling was delayed to allow an opportunity for the local community group to undertake the refurbishment and management of the enclosure. Due to ongoing deterioration of the existing pen, culling at this time had to proceed for welfare and safety reasons.
‘The local community group was made aware of the need for these actions and the reasons for the culling proceeding at this time,‘ the spokesperson said.
Latest news:
It was reported on last night UTV that a spokeman from the FS said the deer were killed because the fence around their area could have been harmful to them.
Read the BBC article. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4641612.stm)
A marksman from the Forestry Service shot three of the deer last week, having culled two elderly animals a few weeks before.
However, one of the Sika deer evaded the official gunman and is now ‘on the run‘ and being fed and supported by local residents.
Despite its protests, the Seskinore Community Association says it has received no explanation for the killings. It demanded to know why the deer were killed when there had been a ‘tacit agreement‘ with the Forestry Service that the animals, which were well loved by local residents, would be left in the care of the community group. Indeed, several people from Seskinore had been feeding the animals over a prolonged period.
One of those, Jim Riddell, said people are very disappointed.
‘We weren‘t informed about it,‘ he said of the deer killing. ‘We had agreed to look after them and had filled out paperwork to the effect that we could look after them.
‘If a fence of the enclosure was damaged, we were quite capable of dealing with that The whole community is saddened.‘
From the BBC:
The reason given for the cull was that a fence was a danger to the safety and welfare of the animals. The herd was then killed.
Mr Riddell said that local school groups and other visitors to Seskinore Forest Park were always delighted to see the deer.
‘Last summer I met a man whose children brought him down every day to see how the baby deer were growing.‘
Mr Riddell said two of the deer were does and he fears that they were in calf and so should not have been culled at all.
Former Omagh District councillor and vice-chairman of the Seskinore Community Association Gerry McMenamin expressed anger at the destruction of the animalsm, saying the deer were an important feature of the community group‘s plans for the area.
‘No one know what the reasoning behind this was,‘ he said. ‘They were lovely animals and attracted a lot of visitors.‘
The chairman of the association‘s sub-committee on development of the forest amenities, Ray McCracken, commented ‘We‘ve attempted to draw up agreements with Forestry Service but they did this very much out of the blue and I think there‘s quite a bit of upset about it.
‘The deer were an integral part of the forest and were likely to be an integral part of the forest operation as far as we could see it from a community point of view. They were an attraction that was already there.‘
Mr McCracken said the community association accepted that there was going to be a cull, but ‘not total annihilation‘.
‘We didn‘t know that there was anything afoot until some of the neighbours heard shots being fired,‘ he said. ‘These were semi-tame deer that were starting to come up to the wire to get fed.
‘We specifically told the department in any discussions we had with them that the deer would have to be kept. This doesn‘t do anything for relations between the community and the Forestry Service or the Department (of Agriculture),‘ said Mr McCracken. ‘It was a poor show. If they had consulted us, they wouldn‘t have got shooting the deer.‘
A spokesperson for the department said, ‘The Forest Service carried out a cull of the Sika deer at Seskinore over December 2005 and January 2006, in line with its planned approach to rationalise the numbers and types of deer held in enclosures on its land.
‘The culling was delayed to allow an opportunity for the local community group to undertake the refurbishment and management of the enclosure. Due to ongoing deterioration of the existing pen, culling at this time had to proceed for welfare and safety reasons.
‘The local community group was made aware of the need for these actions and the reasons for the culling proceeding at this time,‘ the spokesperson said.
Latest news:
It was reported on last night UTV that a spokeman from the FS said the deer were killed because the fence around their area could have been harmful to them.
Read the BBC article. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4641612.stm)