and not a gun.
A sickening report today from a customer and a bit of checking around the local farmers etc found that Roe deer are being hunted and killed to the point of extinction around the Queensbury area and beyond.
These animals are being hunted mainly after dark , known as torching, which is illegal, by scumbags purely for money, selling the kill on to unscrupulous butchers to sell on to restaurants where it is sold to diners not knowing what condition the meat is in or how long it has been kept in the back of a pick up truck.
Several farmers are also facing problems of poachers hunting deer with long dogs which chase the deer until they are exhausted. I heard of one local farmer that shot one of the poachers lurchers when the dog lost the deer and started chasing his sheep instead. Unfortunately its not the dogs fault for doing as instructed, it is the poachers that should be shot.
The police are aware of this with several calls from the public but at night it is hard to cover all the areas targeted and so far no arrests have been made despite several deer being killed in Shibden Valley, Queensbury station and Oats Royd where the few remaining deer seem to have left the area.
Anyone seeing any suspicious vehicles or characters acting suspicious should report this to the police who will pass it on to the appropriate channels.
Any Roe deer sightings by myself ,or reported to me ,will be omitted from the blog or put as undisclosed site and I suggest other local bloggers do the same.
Sorry for the depressing blog but people need to be made aware of whats going on.
BS