"Canned Hunting" by the Woodland Trust
On the 29 November 2000, a deer had somehow got into an area enclosed by a deer fence and a walker was shocked to find that a group of Woodland Trust personnel were hunting it, rather than opening a wide gate to let it escape. One of the group had a rifle.
A letter was written to the Woodland Trust to complain about the treatment of this animal. In due course the response below was received.
The Woodland Trust did not seek to deny the incident but sought to excuse the hunting of this defenceless animal by nonsensical reference to sustaining the woodland's ecological balance and once again using euphemistic references to "deer management" and "control of deer".
The deer was trapped within an enclosure, had no opportunity of escape, and faced certain death in similar circumstances to the widely condemned "canned-hunting" industry in South Africa.