Hunting Roe Deer

With the correct license, weapon, and in areas where they have permission to do so it is perfectly legal to hunt roe deer though I suspect it unlikely that most restaurant owners will be taking illegal venision - for a start I suspect Environmental Health will be on them like a ton of bricks as meat needs to go through a certified game dealer and if that isn't done they could be some very difficult questions for the restaruant owner to answer! 

While I can understand that in certain herds Deer numbers have to be kept down by culling but this is done legally,poaching any wild life often it has not had a quick death and so has suffered,this really gets my back up.From experience of living in rural areas I can assure you that there is no problem in selling poached game and the diners eating it in hotels would have no way of telling the diference

Unknown said:

Having not seen the Roe deer for some time I began to wonder if they had succumbed to stavation in the hard weather or illicit hunters. The Ranger found a bin bag with the hide and entrails of one deer dumped in a layby.

So I delighted to see three deer yesterday traveling across the reserve on the shoreline.  Too late to photograph them but It was good to see their little white tails. But here is a pic I took last year.

Is it illegal to hunt these creatures? I wonder if restaurant owners turn a blind eye to the source of the venison offered and maybe these economic times may see resurgence in poaching.

 

I saddens me that in the USA that deer are regarded as a pest mainly because people have built on their habitat and the deer continue to forage. The roads are littered with deer carcasses.