URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
Stop the deer cull!
A farmer in Kirkstall Valley, Leeds, has been complaining to the council about deer
destroying his crops and allegedly driving him out of business.
The council are due to have a meeting this week and decide whether to licence a cull
of deer in the area. The area councillor has voiced opposition to the cull, which if
given the go ahead will hapen in a wildlife 'haven' only 5 minutes away from Leeds
City Centre.
Please contact the council and voice your disgust that they would consider killing
wildlife:
Sample Letter:
"Dear Sir / Madam, Leeds City Council,
I am disgusted that the council is considering holding a deer cull in the Kirkstall
Valley, only 5 minutes from the city centre, and killing wildlife because of a
farmer's complaint.
Culls do not work and in the short term result in the starvation of young animals,
in the long term the deer population grows immensley.
Many ethical alternatives exist to culls and protect crops from being eaten.
Therefor I am asking that no cull is held,
Yours Sincerely,"
Chief Executive's Office,
Civic Hall,
Leeds, LS1 1UR
Tel: 0113 324 8080
communicationsteam@leeds.gov.uk MANAGEMENT:
Paul Rogerson (CEO)
paul.rogerson@leeds.gov.uk Dave Page (Deputy CEO)
david.page@leeds.gov.uk,
dave.page@leeds.gov.uk Chief Financial Officer
chief.financial.officer@leeds.gov.uk COUNCILLORS (INCLUDES ALL EMAIL ADDRESSES IN ALERT):
javaid.akhtar@leeds.gov.uk,
barry.anderson@leeds.gov.uk,
stuart.andrew@leeds.gov.uk,
suzi.armitage@leeds.gov.uk,
denise.atkinson@leeds.gov.uk,
john.bale@leeds.gov.uk,
andrew.barker@leeds.gov.uk,
sue.bentley@leeds.gov.uk,
christopher.beverley@leeds.gov.uk,
ann.blackburn@leeds.gov.uk,
Cllr.david.blackburn@leeds.gov.uk,
judith.blake@leeds.gov.uk,
richard.brett@leeds.gov.uk,
colin.campbell@leeds.gov.uk,
amanda.carter@leeds.gov.uk,
andrew.carter@leeds.gov.uk,
les.carter@leeds.gov.uk,
ann.castle@leeds.gov.uk,
judith.m.chapman@leeds.gov.uk,
brian.cleasby@leeds.gov.uk,
david.congreve@leeds.gov.uk,
mick.coulson@leeds.gov.uk,
debra.coupar@leeds.gov.uk,
patrick.davey@leeds.gov.uk,
ryk.downes@leeds.gov.uk,
jane.dowson@leeds.gov.uk,
geoff.driver@leeds.gov.uk,
jack.dunn@leeds.gov.uk,
judith.elliott@leeds.gov.uk,
penny.ewens@leeds.gov.uk,
ruth.feldman@leeds.gov.uk,
ronald.feldman@leeds.gov.uk,
robert.finnigan@leeds.gov.uk,
clive.fox@leeds.gov.uk,
angela.gabriel@leeds.gov.uk,
stewart.golton@leeds.gov.uk,
pauleen.grahame@leeds.gov.uk,
terry.grayshon@leeds.gov.uk,
peter.gruen@leeds.gov.uk,
martin.hamilton@leeds.gov.uk,
sharon.hamilton@leeds.gov.uk,
grg@aagaardhanley.com,
roger.harington@leeds.gov.uk,
janet.harper@leeds.gov.uk,
peter.harrand@leeds.gov.uk,,
mark.harris@leeds.gov.uk,
andrea.harrison@leeds.gov.uk,
david.hollingsworth@leeds.gov.uk,
kabeer.hussain@leeds.gov.uk,
graham.hyde@leeds.gov.uk,
william.hyde@leeds.gov.uk,
john.illingworth@leeds.gov.uk,
mohammed.iqbal@leeds.gov.uk,
josephine.jarosz@leeds.gov.uk,
brian.jennings@leeds.gov.uk,
valerie.kendall@leeds.gov.uk,
graham.kirkland@leeds.gov.uk,
brenda.lancaster@leeds.gov.uk,
graham.latty@leeds.gov.uk,
thomas.leadley@leeds.gov.uk,
james.lewis@leeds.gov.uk,
richard.lewis@leeds.gov.uk,
matthew.lobley@leeds.gov.uk,
stewart.mcardle@leeds.gov.uk,
james.mckenna@leeds.gov.uk,
andrew.millard@leeds.gov.uk,
elizabeth.minkin@leeds.gov.uk,
james.monaghan@leeds.gov.uk,
veronica.morgan@leeds.gov.uk,
david.morton@leeds.gov.uk,
lisa.mulherin@leeds.gov.uk,
thomas.murray@leeds.gov.uk,
elizabeth.nash@leeds.gov.uk,
adam.ogilvie@leeds.gov.uk,
keith.parker@leeds.gov.uk,
mark.phillips@leeds.gov.uk,
john.procter@leeds.gov.uk,
rachael.procter@leeds.gov.uk,
ralph.pryke@leeds.gov.uk,
cllr.mohammed.rafique@leeds.gov.uk,
karen.renshaw@leeds.gov.uk,
linda.rhodes-clayton@leeds.gov.uk,
frank.robinson@leeds.gov.uk,
luke.russell@leeds.gov.uk,
david.schofield@leeds.gov.uk,
brian.selby@leeds.gov.uk,
alec.shelbrooke@leeds.gov.uk,
steve.cllr.smith@leeds.gov.uk,
neil.taggart@leeds.gov.uk,
alan.taylor@leeds.gov.uk,
christopher.townsley@leeds.gov.uk,
paul.wadsworth@leeds.gov.uk,
keith.wakefield@leeds.gov.uk,
gerald.wilkinson@leeds.gov.uk,
donald.wilson@leeds.gov.uk,
communicationsteam@leeds.gov.uk,
paul.rogerson@leeds.gov.uk,
david.page@leeds.gov.uk,
dave.page@leeds.gov.uk,
chief.financial.officer@leeds.gov.uk
Comments
Hide the following 14 comments
Maybe there are too mant deer
12.11.2006 19:06
voice
Doh
12.11.2006 19:50
The so called " farmer" is another example of a territorial nutcase.
Fuck the Council(and the previous message and the messager on this board),they can't even say kill or slaughter,much more morally easier to clad violence in benign language like " cull".
Tim
Just a thought!
13.11.2006 06:28
Arthur
Actually I think you’ll find its more complicated
13.11.2006 10:07
Well, I e-mailed one of the councillors and this is the reply I got… And although I’m sure he’s got his own invested interest it sounds like a hopeful situation, if someone could come up with a way to make the fence (economically) viable.
.............
At present it is an officer's decision, and I doubt that it will come before the full council. It is a really difficult and intractable problem, and I have already received several messages about it. Here follows a reply that I have prepared for another local resident who was equally concerned:
This is a complex and delicate business, and the story in the Evening Post did not give all the facts. I have been closely involved in this area for the last twenty years, and here is a potted history:
The floodplain of the River Aire through the Kirkstall Valley is grade one agricultural land, among the best in West Yorkshire, and comparable with the best in the entire country. It is deep stoneless river alluvium, undisturbed (apart from farming) since the last ice age. Less than twenty years ago, the official policy of Leeds City Council (adopted with all party support) was to tip about 250,000 tons of highly toxic contaminated fly ash on top of the pristine environment in order to raise the level above the floodline and thereby convert it into a supermarket car park.
I am not kidding. I can show you the plans.
This harebrained scheme was endorsed by the government office, and the only people to speak out against such an obscenity were your three local councillors, the Kirkstall Village Community Association and a handful of local residents. And the farmer, who has come in for so much stick over the deer issue. If it had not been for him we would never have persuaded MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) to survey the area in time to save it.
My wife and I have two allotments on the site. We do fence them against the deer, and the fence works. However, the cost of maintaining the fence exceeds the value of the crops that we raise. It doesn't matter to us, because the site is lovely, the food is delicious and we do it for fun, but it makes no economic sense for the farmer, who is not a rich man, and simply could not afford to construct a suitable fence, or keep it in good condition.
If the situation is left as it is, the farm will inevitably fail, and probably take with it a very successful rehabilitation scheme for young offenders that also runs on the same site. I have a moral problem with simply booting the farmer off the land that he has helped to protect and has farmed for most of his working life.
We have racked our brains for a solution to the deer problem. The population is exploding: there are now at least three mature hinds and two stags, plus their numerous young, which are difficult to count. Last year one hind had triplets, which is highly unusual for wild deer, and a reflection of the excellent food supply. They browse at random and do enormous damage to the crops. If the farm closes that food supply will fail, and the population will crash. Some might move back to Bramley Fall woods, where we think they came from, but that area is already saturated with wild deer. To put it bluntly, some of these animals will inevitably starve to death.
Another problem is "lamping" - hunting at night, using lamps to attract the animals. There have already been fatal accidents near Leeds through this unlawful activity, which I know is still going on. Amateur marksmen often fail to kill their victims cleanly, leaving injured animals to suffer for considerable periods of time. Hunting is banned on council land, but some of this site does not belong to the council.
Any alternative suggestions for stabilising the deer population would be welcomed. We have already tried scattering lion dung, which is supposed to scare them, and considered using tranquillising darts, which are not as easy as they sound. There might be a technical solution using ultrasound, but the effects on other wildlife must also be taken into account.
The site is worth at least £20,000,000 as development land, probably a lot more. We are constantly fighting off developers who want to build on it. The latest wheeze is to put the buildings on stilts to "overcome" the flooding problem. There have been at least two such applications, and once again I can show you the plans. I am seriously concerned that unscrupulous property developers might exploit the deer issue for their own ends. We have already had to contend with a developers' agent secretly infiltrating the local community association in order to undermine their efforts. Your local councillors also keep their wits about them and I can show you her reports to her boss. I have served as a Kirkstall councillor for 27 years, and I can tell you that nothing in my experience can equal the greed and deviousness of property companies.
We want to dedicate the entire area as a new public park, and we are desperate for concerned local residents to help us manage it. We have established a local charity to promote the scheme, and we have a website at
Please respond to this message if you are interested. I would be delighted to walk the site with you and to show you the situation at first hand.
John Illingworth
Mary
e-mail:
holme_i@hotmail.com
Generalising Arthur
13.11.2006 14:14
Think before you type Arthur;generalising not only makes you look like a inaccurate tosser but also a generalising tosser!
Tim
whats this got to do with camper vans?
13.11.2006 15:38
Now, now children (and there’s nothing wrong with camper vans!)
But really, I’m not sure where people would stand on this. I’m not particularly sure why watching a deer being killed by a wolf is better than it being shot by a gun –assuming that shooting them with a gun doesn’t involve chasing them with dogs for a couple of hours before hand.
Seems to be that what is actually needed is some volunteers to go and put up the fences and maintain them. And for that I think the camper vans would come in handy.
Mary
e-mail:
holme_i@hotmail.com
Photographer available
13.11.2006 17:59
JUNIOR NUJ
...
13.11.2006 18:04
anon
deer are beautiful animals but...
15.11.2006 19:19
Erecting deer fencing around particularly sensitive areas, or maintaining tall hedges of native trees and shrubs are effective methods. Deer are an important part of many ecosystems, but in some cases need controlling. This does not seem to be one of them. I do feel, however, that 'OH GOD THEY ARE GOING TO KILL AN ANIMAL' hysteria is not only misguided, but an ineffective method in portraying strongly held beliefs.
P
peet
It's a Tough One
15.11.2006 21:50
I am one of the Councillor's in the email list given above and received many emails on this subject.
My colleague Cllr Illingworth has hit the nail on the head with his reply as it is an officer decision that is been taken on this matter under delegated powers. It is a tough issue to decide on and is not just about a few deer but the whole population and their quality of life.
Luke
Luke
e-mail:
lukeofyorkshire@yahoo.co.uk
well happy
15.11.2006 23:42
Good choice.
Onward and upward!
83498745
mmm
16.11.2006 01:20
voice
rspca
16.11.2006 01:23
voice
Yea Hitler Was A Vegan Too Councilliar
18.11.2006 01:49
Tim