I've read a couple of reports recently which point out that we have a growing problem in Tasmania with feral deer. Some surveys say that they gather in groups of several hundred and can cause enormous damage to farmers' crops, fences and waterholes. Shooters are allowed to kill a few from time to time, but it is tightly controlled and it is illegal to sell the meat. There's a lot of meat on a deer and there's only so much room in a home freezer, so the average shooter won't want to shoot too many and so won't make much of an impression on the available numbers. I wrote one time about getting hold of a piece of venison which I turned into an award-winning stew but, unless I buy a Remington, I'm unlikely to have that opportunity again. If any deer hunters are reading this, I have a good recipe I'd like to use again. You provide the venison, I'll provide the expertise and we can share the result.
There are shooters out there in the paddocks every night of the week shooting kangaroos for dog meat but the government can't bring itself to extend the licences to include deer.
One year, when I was running the Tasmanian Craft Fair, I had an artist from the Great Lakes area who made jewellery and knick-knacks from deer antlers which she picked up on her walks. Apparently, the animals shed their antlers each year so there were always plenty around. She had a very attractive display which caught the attention of one of our visitors. He turned out to be a ranger of some kind and he told her that deer were protected and it was illegal to collect their discarded antlers and certainly against the law to turn them into jewellery, for sale to the public.
She had to take all the antler-jewellery away from her stall. The law is an ass!
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