§ EARL WINTERTONMy Lords, I beg to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will introduce legislation making a closed season for the shooting or taking of wild deer in England and prohibiting the use of unsuitable weapons, in view of the large number of such deer in the South and West of England, and the cruelty caused by shooting them during the breeding season, involving, in many cases, the starvation of their fawns, and also by the wounds inflicted on them by the use of unsuitable firearms.]
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, the Committee on Cruelty to Wild Animals, which reported in 1951, did not recommend the statutory imposition of a close season for deer in England, and Her Majesty's Government have no plans for the introduction of legislation on the subject. At present there is no evidence of general agreement among the ingested parties that legislation to impose a close season is both necessary and practicable. The Committee on Cruelty to Wild Animals examined the shooting of wild animals, both as a method of control and for sport, but they came to the conclusion that it was impracticable to regulate it or to impose any statutory control on the use of guns.
§ EARL WINTERTONMy Lords, is my noble friend aware—no doubt he is—that this is the only country in Europe, I think, in which there is no statutory close season for deer in the breeding 1051 season? Is he further aware that, whatever views the various parties he mentioned may have expressed, great cruelty is caused to the many wandering herds of deer in the South and West of England as the result of the circumstances mentioned in my Question? Could be not at any rate get the Minister to beg people not to shoot deer when they have young, and not to shoot them with unsuitable weapons?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, in the course of preparing an Answer to my noble friend's Question, I have made a good many inquiries and have tried to work out what might be the extent of this problem. Of course, any instance such as my noble friend describes must be wrong and we should all deplore it. I know about the close season situation, and there are many varying arguments and points of view about it. I have also thought about the question of shooting deer in England. They are shot mostly as pests, not in the same way as deer are shot for sport in Scotland, and there is, so far as I am aware, nothing like the same problem of poaching. I believe it is true to say that in certain quarters, notably among sportsmen, a voluntary close season would be observed. I think that such cases as my noble friend describes occur through attempts to shoot deer because of the damage they are doing. On my noble friend's last point I would say that it was recommended some while ago that advice about the use of a gun should be given by means of a pamphlet. This recommendation was adopted, and certain general suggestions and observations on the use of a gun are printed on the back of gun licences.
§ LORD WINSTERMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he does not feel that there is something illogical in doing in Scotland what the Government are not prepared to do in England? Surely cruelty and inhumanity are the same, whether they occur in Scotland or in England?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, if I may interpret that as a question I would say that I do not think it is illogical, because the recommendations made were based largely on the serious problem caused by poaching activities in Scotland, with which, so far as I know, we are not faced in England.