Right. We’re not in the highlands of Scotland here. Far from it. Some places near where I work are a bit… well….. actually they’re VERY….

One of the girls has got in to work this morning and is freaking out a bit. She said that she awoke this morning, and opened the curtains to see the next door neighbour skinning a deer in the back garden. 😯

Blood everywhere. Behind him are 2 already skinned pelts, hung up on the washing line, heads still on. I think its the heads on thing thats really freaked her out!

I’ve told her she needs to be looking at venison recipes.

But can you do this? Can you just nip out and shoot any local wildlife? Then tear them limb from limb in your back garden?

Its quite complicated

Rules on deer stalking

Nothing wrong with skinning a deer for personal consumption in your back garden at all. Leaving aside how it came to be dead in the back garden aside, what’s the problem?

How does she think the little packs of meat in Sainsbury’s get there? Magic?

Rachel

“But I found it at the side of the road already dead!”

How does she think the little packs of meat in Sainsbury’s get there? Magic?

I can’t think of a better explanation.

You cannot shoot them without a licence. Butchers generally won’t touch them as they know/suspect they have been killed illegally. You can skin/eat roadkill, seems a bit suspicious this guy has multiple road kill in his garden.

He may have a licence.

As a non meat eater for over 25 years it’s clear to me that she needs to MU about where her food comes from.

He could have been a little more thoughtful about how and where he preps the beast, but then maybe he has being doing that for years and today is the first time she has noticed.

You can shoot them and skin them in your garden, but for some reason you can’t shoot them then **** them. Came as quite a surprise but I’ll know next time.

it’s clear to me that she needs to MU about where her food comes from.

Oh, the neighbour’s invited her to his barbeque?

“You cannot shoot them without a licence”
well you need a ticket to own a firearm, and you need authority from the land owner, animal owner, to hunt/shoot.

The fact that he has butchered two beasts points to that.

Northwind – Member

You can shoot them and skin them in your garden, but for some reason you can’t shoot them then **** them. Came as quite a surprise but I’ll know next time.

😯

News to me, if anything needed a PSA

Binners..
Have a word with your local Greggs about Venison slice options. 🙂

As a non meat eater for over 25 years it’s clear to me that she needs to MU about where her food comes from.

THIS never failed to amaze me how squeamish meat eaters are to the fact meat comes form a dead animal and how remote they want to be freomt he reality of this….its like they know its wrong.

Not the OP he would kill it with his bare hands well if he could catch it and greggs was shut 😉

HIS never failed to amaze me how squeamish meat eaters are to the fact meat comes form a dead animal and how remote they want to be freomt he reality of this….its like they know its wrong.

man skinning deer doesn’t sound squeamish

What size tyres for deer stalking

Doesn’t bother me at all – I like meat – it’s tasty. I have no issue with slaughtering.

Mind you, I remember being on a small boat / dinghy with a couple of (male) friends who decided to do some fishing until they actually caught something and brought it into the boat. Never seen such a pair of useless killers! Did it myself before the poor thing asphyxiated…

Rachel

his kids must hate riding that tag-along. He makes them sit on the rear wheel.

There are far more Deer around than most people think, add to that that there are gamekeepers and shooters willing to go out at night to keep the numbers of pests (rats/mink/rabbits etc) under control, then there will be times when there are Deer available to take home – most Landowners will keep Red for themselves.
Muntjac are pretty much all over the Country now, and are a real pest for new woodlands. I’d take a guess that the ones in the garden were Muntjac, basically, as one person can pick them up. Red Deer are far too big to pick up alone, and a pain to transport.

BTW, Muntjac is a nice meat, and probably what you’d buy from the local butcher in Southern England, there really arent enough Red and Fallow to supply the meat industry with regularity, but there are loads of Muntjac, and there isnt a season to shoot them.

There are conditions to meet, as noted above, Landowners permission, correct calibre rifle etc, but anyone shooting them will be well aware of this, and is not likely to break the Law doing it, as it is likely they’d lose their Firearms Licence if they breach the conditions.

You need a license to posess a firearm, but you can shoot someone eleses firearm under their supervision, and must be on land you own or have permission to shoot.
You can only shoot deer when they are in season, which depends on type and sex.
And you must use the appropriate weapon for the appropriate deer.

But the caarcass in question may have been given, or he may have found it which is all perfectly fine.

Obviously that deer had to learn the hard way how to ride a bike.

Licencing. You shoot deer with a rifle, the firearms restrictions are much stricter than for shotguns as are the rules on where you can shoot for obvious reasons.

Chap I used to work with lived in a van. One morning he found a dead deer by the road and decided to butcher it. In the back of his van. On his lunch break. He pootled back in looking like Carrie hen washed his hands and tried to crack on with work before someone pointed out that he still had rather a lot of red on him and was now getting it into the parcels he was packing.

Once he’d skinned it he hung the pelt off the top of his van for a few days and drove around thinking that would be enough to cure it. Unsurprisingly when he made moccasins out of the pelt they rotted over the course of the first day of wearing them and stank the warehouse out.

Remarkably, he had a girlfriend.

If jamie was still here that’d have a cape and underpants by now.

used to live below Wharncliffe and regularly saw deer crossing the A6102 Oughti’ – Stocksbridge road early in morning – signs went up advising drivers to be aware and the deer disappeared … not completely but definitely reduced in areas near the road and herds in more remote parts of the woods smaller 🙁

All you need is a firearms certificate, legal calibre of rifle and permission from the landowner to actually shoot the deer (assuming it’s in season and not at night etc).

As for skinning and butchering in the back garden and blood everywhere – hmmm!

I’ve skinned (after legally shooting) many deer but usually in the garage, I’d not chose to do it in the back garden. In general though, they are all gralloched (gutted) in the field and guts etc buried. Leaving the guts in for any length of time isn’t a good plan. They are then hung for a week or so, so by the time they are skinned there is no blood. Skinning freshly shot deer isn’t a good plan, as the meat dries out while hanging and gets a black leathery surface. Likewise, you don’t want to butcher a fresh deer.

probably what you’d buy from the local butcher in Southern England, there really arent enough Red and Fallow to supply the meat industry with regularity, but there are loads of Muntjac, and there isnt a season to shoot them.

Not true – loads of fallow in the south and lots of roe. Most of the southern stuff going through game dealers is roe or fallow. Not many muntjac in the NW (where I think binners is) – most likely to be a roe if we’re guessing!

My mate’s dog killed a muntjac yesterday, it wasn’t nice. 😳 It will all end up in the oven though. 2nd time it’s happened to a friend this year, 1st time was STW’s favourite a border terrier! There’s a lot of them about.

He’s “country”, one conversation when his daughter answered the door:

“Hi, where’s your dad?”
“in the garden getting the meat out of squirrels”

Even though I know where meat comes from, it probably is the shock of her seeing it happening in her urban garden.

Yes, we are over run with deer and grey squirrels.

It is foolish to do it where people can see. My father in law and husband will gut and skin in the garage becasue they don’t want this precise reaction.

Northwind 🙂

It is foolish to do it where people can see.

Why? Is it a big secret where meat comes from?

As a couple of others have said, I’ve never understood this mentality. I’m squeamish about where meat comes from, which is why I’ve been vegetarian for over two decades.

If you eat meat and you’re happy with the butchery process, good, more power to your elbow. But if you’re going to get upset at the sudden realisation that Bambi doesn’t grow in packets, you should probably sit down and have a think for a bit.

We need more people to be out hunting deer, they are vermin around my way, I have had a number of close calls with the buggers running out in front of my car.

I got told off by my sister-in-law once for teaching my then 3 year old nephew to make all the appropriate animal noises as we walked down the meat aisle in the supermarket…

Rachel

I live in the Lakes and drive through Grizedale and Graythwaite forests. There is a mile long section I drive everyday I call “Deer Alley” as they just run/leap into the road!!. Not fun… 😕

Loads of fallow and roe around the Chilterns. Most large estates having stalking businesses if you are into that kind of thing. I am sure they would let you help them skin them too if you asked.

teaching my then 3 year old nephew to make all the appropriate animal noises as we walked down the meat aisle in the supermarket

It’s a good job we don’t eat fox 😉

Rachel, I bet you’re one of those people who can’t wait to get people’s splinters out with a needle or burst blisters.

Why? Is it a big secret where meat comes from?

It’s just about being circumspect, your neighbour might be a secret raging PETA type and firebomb your house?
Whislt I agree that if it is legal who cares, but I prefer to not give people the opportunity to make trouble for me. The world is full of busybodies (as evidenced by the OP’s friend).

EG My husband got reproted to the police by a neighbour for shooting the airgun in the back garden. He was firing up agaisnt the shed into a metal pellet target catcher thingy that catches the pellets. The neighbour saw it from ther window and called the rozzers. Cue a dense PCSO on the doorstep threatening my husband with prison, when in fact she had no concept of what the legality of airifles and their use was. My husband coaxed her into the house and calmly googled the .gov page on airgun law.

But the issue here is that non officer types like the PCSO and civvy helpers at the cop shop put this on my husbands record as a suspected firearms incident, which when renewing his firearms licnese he had to explain to the acutal officers in charge. They all laughed about it, but it was till a P in the A.

So despite this really resulting in a minor admin issue for my boy to solve, who knowns what might have happened in the hands of some blue uniformed pillocks, or if the press decided to misreport?

Lesson – keep your business quiet..

Where we live is teaming with Muntjac deer (Bromley/Farnborough/Biggin Hill)
It is lovely to see them mooching about at dusk when i’m out on the bike.