TAGGING SHOT DEER.

Here is my first post on my new website.

I would like to think someone, somewhere, will ‘pick this up and run with it’.

I have every intention of sending the details / suggestions on to as many places I can think of where it might actually set things in motion.

(My second post is basically the main reason so by all means read on).

I have, for many years, questioned WHY we do not have a TAGGING SYSTEM for EVERYONE who has a full bore rifle classified as legal to shoot deer. I am not a great fan of many things across the Atlantic with our ‘American cousins’ but in this regard THEY HAVE IT RIGHT!

You shoot a deer THE FIRST thing you do after checking the animal is actually expired is put a cut into the back leg and attach a numbered tag around the main tendon (or the other way and around the bone). Get caught without a tag attached and you stand a good chance to lose your guns, your vehicle and a few other things, hopefully your liberty for a year or two.

Forget your tag/s? TOO BAD….go back and get them or risk losing the lot. Does not matter how far you travelled, does not matter it’s the best Buck / Stag of your life….GO BACK AND GET YOUR TAG. Get caught without it, as said, lose everything. SIMPLE, no questions, no ‘oh I was only’, no appeal….and that includes your certificates too! YOUR OUT. Consequences like that and you would have to be some kind of stupid to ‘forget’!

A simple enough concept to make it the FIRST thing on any checklist before you leave the house?

OK, organisation and administration would need to be modern and unrestrictive.

Ask for genuine numbers of tags you would hope to use each season. Have ZERO ‘comeback’ if they do not actually get used, (there are MANY reasons why it could and would happen, not least too much optimism)! Have a good / extra busy year it would need to be EASY to request more and that those be sent out promptly.

Given the technology available today I am pretty sure it would be a very easy job to design a programme and produce individually numbered, tamper proof tags strong enough to stay in place until any carcase gets processed.

IT WOULD ALSO BE A GREAT AID TO THE MODERN DAY TRACEABILITY JOURNEY NOW REQUIRED when game enters the commercial food chain supply so a ‘WIN / WIN’ all round.

AGAIN, I would insist it is POINTLESS putting restrictions as to numbers that can be requested and there must be ZERO ‘come back’ if you ask for 100 and only get to use 10. People will always be suspicious of their ‘freedom’ being infringed so everything NEEDS to be transparent, fare and no repercussions for the honest man /woman.

The suggestion / system would be to curb and hopefully stop the growing numbers of people who have little to zero respect for the law or the quarry.

January 1st each year (or whatever chosen day) tags are no longer valid. Apply for more in good time for the coming year. Equally YOU need to keep track and not wait till you have only one or none left. Do that and it’s YOUR fault so run out and you don’t go out. You won’t forget the next time especially when you only have yourself to blame.

The system also needs facility to keep track of where the tags end up. YES, that means access to the Police too. The reason?

Try this: Someone has permission to shoot over 300 or 400 acres of rough hillside sparsely dotted with a few clumps of Hawthorn, Gauze bushes and a small wood. At best you MIGHT get chance of a small number of deer a year and that is IF the surrounding ground is good enough to produce a decent surplus. It SHOULD start to ring alarm bells if you are turning up at a game dealer on a regular basis with any number of deer carcasses to get ‘weighed in’ with numbers approaching halfway to 100 two or three months into the season! Equally requesting 100 plus tags and using them all….HOW?

Now, that is not to accuse anyone of anything underhand or poaching. That person MAY WELL have access / pay for shooting where the ground is over run and deer out number the rabbits! It should be a simple enough task to have ‘markers’ built in to the Tag Software Programme that highlight such anomalies and set a process of checks in play.

A simple visit by the authorities to ascertain everything is above board and the additional ‘super productive’ ground can be added to the certificate records. Benefits everyone.
No SUITABLE explanation and there ARE consequences.

Best case …. LOSE THE LOT…. GUNS, CERTIFICATES, VEHICLE … EVERYTHING ….GONE AND NOT COMING BACK.?

(Everything could even be auctioned off to go back into helping pay for the system…THERE’S a thought)! (Proceeds of Crime legislation already in place).

Worst case, but still second best result: A WARNING, hopefully anything not legitimate and above board STOPS, (BASICALLY THE POACHING) and EVERYONE other than the ‘toe rag’ who got caught is happy (deer included)!

GAME DEALERS also need to be part of the system and have legal obligation to keep accurate records. (Little point them requesting ‘a couple of thousand’ tags so they can slip one on if, as and when someone has taken the risk and arrived with a ‘bare’ carcase)!

Most may not, SOME WOULD!

I have to keep accurate records. Farmers producing meat products have to keep accurate records, Even Scrap Yards have to, all in the fight against illegal activities so I would suggest it’s high time Deer carcasses should have traceability back to source.

If you don’t have a rifle of suitable calibre you get no tags.

If your found with a Roe, even if its tagged and all you have is a .22 Centerfire (so legal for ‘Munti’ and Chinese) SAME AGAIN…you lose the lot. Put an ‘illegal for calibre quarry’ into a game dealer and expect some questions (as well as the dealer refusing to accept it).

OK, It’s not impossible to find yourself in a ‘humane dispatch’ situation with a Roe, Sika, Fallow or Red and the only rifle you possess is a .222 or similar. You LEGITIMATELY take the stance that as a Responsible Hunter you simply cannot walk away and have to help end the trauma / suffering. FINE. GOOD FOR YOU. But those situations do not happen three times a week, every week. IF you ever found yourself in that situation it’s easy and fast enough to pull a mobile phone out, take a few pictures or even a short video to ‘cover yourself’ should the need arise.
Call the police on 101, option 1, and report the incident requesting a log number …they will even text it back to you! Job done, your back is covered even with no tag.
It’s unlikely it would be suitable for consumption anyway but possible.

Equally there would, no doubt, be the pleas of innocence in the ‘crossover’ straddling the border between the North of England and Scotland (where Roe can be legally shot with .22 centre fire) OK, not EASY to ‘police’ but not THAT difficult either, PROVIDED the will and desire is in place. With a system like this HOPEFULLY someone could only ‘get away’ with it for so long and it would not take the ‘brightest bulb’ in any box to keep an eye out, do vehicle stops, check content at a suitable time / location, be able to distinguish where anything HAD actually been dispatched etc. Also pretty sure the legitimate local shooters in those areas would be more than happy to help any authorities get things sorted out as no one likes poaching other than those doing it.

The MAIN point of a Deer Tagging Scheme AND Tracking System is that it would instantly discourage and very likely even stop substantial numbers of deer from being illegally shot and or poached by whatever method. You are always going to get the ‘bad apples’ who will continue to break the law ….it’s simply a game to them. They get away with it and they ‘have a laugh’ at everyone else’s expense.

They wouldn’t be laughing when they got caught and find themselves having to walk, take a bus or buy a new car (and hopefully have time to figure out exactly how while they are in prison). There would be no smile looking into an empty gun cabinet. No smile when a legitimate gun owner comes along with £30 to take their £400 cabinet away. No ‘big man’ then!

ANY REASONABLE AND LEGITIMATE SPORTSMAN / HUNTER / GUN OWNER / CERTIFICATE HOLDER OR LAND OWNER CAN HAVE ZERO CONCERN OVER SUCH A SCHEME. SURELY IT WOULD BE WELCOMED BY ANY LAW ABIDING PARTY. Protects everyone it should, including the Deer!

FUNDING? YES, ALWAYS going to be an issue. YES, it should be done at Government level. Poaching is a crime and as such deterrents / controls should not have to be funded by those specific people those laws or this scheme under those laws would protect. However, let’s get real in the world we are in.

Unfortunately the Deer and other Game don’t have any pocket money!
The only people to bridge any gap in funding will be those directly involved with the benefits it should and would, no doubt, bring. (MMMM…Current Scottish Government’s attitude toward deer will no doubt be a MAJOR stumbling block)!

Let me be the first to say I would be HAPPY to pay per tag or any other FARE method if it offers just two things:

• Some REAL deterrents to those who have zero respect for the law or the animals they indiscriminately and illegally take.
• Some further protection to the very animals themselves.