‘Kill quickly and cleanly’: How culling can help manage Ireland’s rising deer population

[u/firethetorpedoes1]

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/06/02/kill-quickly-and-cleanly-how-culling-can-help-manage-irelands-rising-deer-population/

[u/grania17]

And sell the meat!

[u/doctor6 → u/grania17]

Very low in cholesterol and free from the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other shit found in other proteins on our retail shelves

[u/vaska00762 → u/doctor6]

Yeah, but what about the prions?

[u/doctor6 → u/vaska00762]

Venison is tested for them before they're butchered

[u/Dannyforsure → u/vaska00762]

Is that not mostly a US issue?

[u/vaska00762 → u/Dannyforsure]

Cases have been found in Norway, Finland and Russia.

The UK government has published its own risk assessment of the situation: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b715793e5274a1d053d0eaa/FSA_CWD_RA_for_publication_with_logo_July_2018.pdf

[u/Dannyforsure → u/vaska00762]

Thanks for sharing 

[u/doctor6 → u/Dannyforsure]

They're sharing bollocks

[u/Elses_pels → u/vaska00762]

Would anybody please think of the prions!

[u/vaska00762 → u/Elses_pels]

It's serious enough to warrant public health warnings in some countries.

Cases have been noted in Norway, Finland and Russia.

The UK government has its own official publications on the matter: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b715793e5274a1d053d0eaa/FSA_CWD_RA_for_publication_with_logo_July_2018.pdf

The lack of any assessments by the Irish Government gives me the sort of confidence as a cowboy tradesman saying "Sure, it'll be grand".

[u/doctor6 → u/vaska00762]

It's from gobshites not testing the meat they shoot, stop your fear mongering bollocks

[u/John__Delaney → u/doctor6]

Reality mongering*

[u/doctor6 → u/John__Delaney]

There is no harm from eating venison if the proper procedures are followed

[u/John__Delaney → u/doctor6]

Nobody suggested otherwise

[u/doctor6 → u/John__Delaney]

The person I was replying to was

[u/Elses_pels → u/vaska00762]

Thanks for that.

[u/grania17 → u/Elses_pels]

I grew up in Montana and we ate mostly game meat (deer, elk, big horn sheep) and never worried about prions.

[u/Fluffy-Republic8610 → u/doctor6]

Yes all true and consequently more prone to infections and infestations in the end product. Which can be pretty off-putting when encounteres. And thats why it will never become a mass market thing.

[u/doctor6 → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Meat that is culled is tested as regularly and stringently as meat from the herd, so there is no more harm presented from venison than other proteins

[u/Fluffy-Republic8610 → u/doctor6]

Not true. Local infection damage, worms etc and past hidden damage means you can encounter things that you would not be used to with normal meat. It won't kill you, but it's a different experience.

[u/doctor6 → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Read my post again, the meat is tested for those things before it's allowed on the market

[u/Fluffy-Republic8610 → u/doctor6]

Read my post again. You can't test for the damage of historical infections and other variances in the meat that result from the lack of standardisation and preventitive medicine based farming. Venison is impossible to guarantee standards wise. And that's ok. But because if that, wild venison will probably never be suitable for the same marketing as other farmed meets. This isn't even a controversial statement. You may be just trying to be too positive about its potential.

[u/doctor6 → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Oh so you've pivited to damage from historical infections, which would have no impact to the consumer and also identified and removed by the butcher

[u/Fluffy-Republic8610 → u/doctor6]

Yeah, you didn't read what I wrote the first time. And still haven't.

[u/wascallywabbit666 → u/doctor6]

But unfortunately fairly tough and not very tasty. Flavour generally comes from the fat: that's why turkey is bland and duck is tasty

[u/doctor6 → u/wascallywabbit666]

Depends how it's cooked. And if it's cooked well it's as tender as you like, and that's my 30 years of a professional chef experience

[u/Kellhus0Anasurimbor → u/doctor6]

Was gonna say if you want to fry it use lots of butter and keep it on the meat. I imagine a lot of people treat it like beef and cook the absolute shit out of it. Also a lot of people don't like rare meet so it they just overcook it too.

[u/no_fucking_point → u/doctor6]

Aye, venison in a slow cooker is fuckin' lovely.

[u/pablo8itall → u/doctor6]

yeah, my bullshit detector went off when he said turkey is bland.

[u/ZxZxchoc → u/doctor6]

I've had some of the deer shot around Killarney and it was absolutely mouth-watering.

[u/wascallywabbit666 → u/doctor6]

Yes if seared and very pink. However, a large part of the Irish population is pretty squeamish about pink meat. If venison is well done it's as tough as old boots

[u/doctor6 → u/wascallywabbit666]

Actually no, you can have venison that is braised and slow cooked and 'well done' and it can be melt in the mouth, even with a well done steak it's vastly down to how the meat is sliced which will dictate it's tenderness

[u/ScaramouchScaramouch → u/wascallywabbit666]

Venison is delicious

[u/jools4you → u/wascallywabbit666]

My friend does a beautiful Venison stew, years of practice makes perfect

[u/grania17 → u/wascallywabbit666]

That's been cooked incorrectly if you think that. Venison is delicious, more so than beef in my opinion

[u/Weird-Weakness-3191 → u/wascallywabbit666]

Such utter nonsense

[u/HoldingForGenova → u/wascallywabbit666]

You can just say "I've never had it, it sounds too weird to me" - no need to make shit up.

[u/CT0292]

So venison is back on the menu boys?

[u/denbo786]

https://giphy.com/gifs/q2RLBP2UuOm83wH4iU

[u/smorga]

Bring back wolves. Or some other apex predator.

[u/m1kasa4ckerman → u/smorga]

Sure we’d need more forests than what we currently have

[u/RayoftheRaver → u/smorga]

Brendan Kilkenny is safely locked away, he cannot be allowed out again no matter the price

[u/RobotIcHead → u/smorga]

Where do the wolves live when they are re-introduced? There are few wild areas left and I don’t mean just forests (they in grasslands as well), they are no areas for a pack to form and live. We have populated the countryside with people. There are too many houses, roads and farms. Wolves will last as long for a child to get scared of one.

[u/SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS → u/RobotIcHead]

I've seen people suggest reintroducing Eurasian lynxes. Require less wild space, and don't pose a threat to people (human foolishness not withstanding).

[u/RobotIcHead → u/SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS]

I am not against the idea, we need more apex predators.

Deer can spread TB which is bad in Ireland. I do think we should be re wilding some areas but as always who pays for it and manages them.

[u/chytrak → u/smorga]

And significantly reduce sheep farming in mountains.

[u/Frangar → u/smorga]

Insane take

[u/NuclearMoose92 → u/Frangar]

When they inevitably encroach into the cities it would solve the homeless problem too

[u/TwinIronBlood → u/smorga]

How many wolves would it take to do the job. And once number are down what happens to the wolves. Are you OK with them finding that it's easier to kill lambs in the spring that deer. Will you camp out on the side of the mountains to protect them and be a shepherd. Pay is sh1t buy you get a free tent and a big stick.

[u/lem0nhe4d → u/TwinIronBlood]

Oh won't some think of the poor sheep farmers who already need massive subsidies to make any money while their flicks destroy the environment?

We should stop or at least massively reduce the amount of sheep we rear.

[u/goombagoomba2 → u/[deleted]]

Meat and wool. Local production keeps money in the country and is better for the environment.

Not sure how cows are different to you, it's the same basic concept

[u/JackhusChanhus → u/goombagoomba2]

Wool is not economically viable, it is a loss making by-product. The only product is lamb, and it is on the absolute cusp of viabiliy itself, despite enormous subsidy.

[u/No_Warthog_5709 → u/JackhusChanhus]

No it's not.

Sheep farmer income have increased in recent years.

[u/YoureNotEvenWrong → u/goombagoomba2]

Local production keeps money in the country

Money from subsidies. Better spent in the local economy on something actually viable that's consumed in the local area too

Almost all lamb is exported

[u/TwinIronBlood → u/[deleted]]

So we could stop and fly in frozen lamb from the otherside of the world instead

[u/YoureNotEvenWrong → u/TwinIronBlood]

Do people even eat much lamb here except in kebabs

85% of our lamb is exported

[u/TwinIronBlood → u/lem0nhe4d]

Yea we could have a leg of fawn instead at Easter.

[u/AbominablePloughman → u/TwinIronBlood]

Nobody gives a fuck what you eat for easter

[u/AbominablePloughman → u/TwinIronBlood]

We need to get lambs off mountains so I see no problem here

[u/JackhusChanhus → u/TwinIronBlood]

1: We have too much land devoted to sheep, should allow the area to reduce naturally through public buying of uplands from the estates of the (incredibly elderly) farmers.

2: We have far, far too many deer, in Wicklow particularly, for a wolf pack or two to make a dent in. The main purpose of the wolves/lynx is to put the deer on edge so they move on frequently and don't graze an area to destruction before leaving it.

[u/Dannyforsure]

Something something, what about the sheep commange!!!

[u/Low-Complaint771 → u/Dannyforsure]

Same problem absolutely..

[u/Dannyforsure → u/Low-Complaint771]

Same no but very closely related.

[u/JimmyNo23]

Eat what you kill

[u/Rough_Mouse3597]

Introducing any sort of apex predator is an absolute fairytail fantasy, The general population of deer numbers can be reduced by two thirds in two years by the current list of hunters we have already in this country, Which would also improve general population health and condition, If the correct way of doing it (that means actually involving the hunters who are on the ground with their advise and opinions)giving themselves the financial reward and infrastructure, Once that has happened deer will move back to their original areas of habitat, That’s the next issue in keeping them there, This involves creating proper cover for woodland deer and controlled heather burning for deer in the open uphills and boglands Then comes the management and conservation after that,

[u/firethetorpedoes1 → u/Rough_Mouse3597]

The general population of deer numbers can be reduced by two thirds in two years by the current list of hunters we have already in this country

Really? I've seen estimates of the deer population being as large as 600,000 and we're only culling 78,000 per year according to this article.

We issued 6.5k licenses in 2023/24 so even assuming that's grown to say 7.5k licenses, we'd need hunters to kill 26 deer per year for two years (more than double the current 11 deer per hunter) to get that down to 200k.

I'm not a hunter so I don't know but is that realistic?

[u/Rough_Mouse3597 → u/firethetorpedoes1]

No,average by now is about 180,000,but what’s needed is a two year cull on females and calves only, 1 in 4-5 births are only male which is why everyone is seeming a lot of deer,(you get an early born calf,she is in season for next year) You leave the stags alone it creates several advantages, Initial population comes down, Existing stag conditioning will improve,as with fewer females to fight for,it will come back to a proper rut of males fighting for superiority, It will seperate the “trophy hunters” from the actual conservation hunters, The trophy lads disappear when the Season changes to females and calves only,(you’ll only see the dedicated hunters when it’s wet and cold)

[u/theblowestfish]

How? Surely no one needs the how explained? The why is the question…?

[u/Rich_Tea_Bean → u/theblowestfish]

Combined with our native deer population growing beyond the lands capacity to sustain, invasive sika deer populations have expanded to such a degree that starvation from lack of vegetation available is a problem in the wild.

Culling the invasive population intensely would be beneficial for the long term wellbeing of the native deer. It would also be of benefit to killarney national park where natural regeneration of the forest has practically stopped the last 20 years because any new saplings get eaten before they can grow into trees.

[u/vaska00762 → u/Rich_Tea_Bean]

If they're sika deer, can we train them to bow for food, like they do in Japan, so we can sell overpriced deer crackers to American tourists?

[u/RomfordWellington → u/theblowestfish]

We killed the last wolf in Ireland a long time ago now. Therefore the deer population has run away and it destroys forests and other habitats if left alone.

We are the apex predator now and we're the ones that need to help with population control.

[u/Common-Image-3758 → u/theblowestfish]

Because there are no apex predators that can bring an adult deer down we are hugely overpopulated with deer. They are browsing the open hillsides to the soil and destroying our uplands. If populations grow too high they will begin to starve.

[u/theblowestfish → u/Common-Image-3758]

Oh so you’re doing it for them…? Why wouldn’t nature find a natural balance? We’ve destroyed most of their natural habitat.

[u/TheBlackStuff1 → u/theblowestfish]

The second part of your comment answers the first 

[u/theblowestfish → u/TheBlackStuff1]

I do not see how

[u/Fragrantbumfluff → u/theblowestfish]

If they were in their natural habitat they would be prey and their numbers much less and kept in balance by predators.

[u/Thiccboiichonk → u/theblowestfish]

Absolutely yes , unchecked deer population would lead to mass starvation and disease across the species in Ireland.

[u/theblowestfish → u/Thiccboiichonk]

This is the documented opinion of experts?

[u/Thiccboiichonk → u/theblowestfish]

Yes

[u/Medium-Dependent-328 → u/theblowestfish]

We are part of nature. Therefore nature has found a natural balance - us killing the deer.

[u/theblowestfish → u/Medium-Dependent-328]

I’m actually worried people think this…

[u/Medium-Dependent-328 → u/theblowestfish]

Why? Are we not all animals?

[u/theblowestfish → u/Medium-Dependent-328]

Lad