Hunter takes aim at deer culling
A Central Otago wild deer culling operation is under fire from an upset hunter for alleged food safety issues but she has won no support from deerstalkers or the company.
The hunter, who is also a farm manager on a property next to Department of Conservation land where the operation took place, said she wanted to remain anonymous.
She posted a photo on Instagram showing a truck and trailer filled with what she said were 70 deer. ‘‘... just been told it is for human consumption, being carted to Wanaka for processing then exported to Germany, so the chopper man reckons. Heat, flys [sic] and 70 hot bodies stacked on top of each other is not fit for human eating.’’ she wrote.
NZ Deerstalkers Association president Bill O’Leary said there were strict regulations for commercial operations. ‘‘These are laid down by the food safety authority. My expectation is those animals have been shot in the morning, gutted on the hill and into a chiller pretty quick.’’
Jonathan Wallis of Wanakabased Alpine Helicopters, which carried out the operation, said the deer were harvested ‘‘strictly in accordance with the rules, regulations and standards set down by the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The way in which they are handled does not represent a health risk.’’ They were being processed for human consumption, for both domestic and overseas sales.
A Department of Conservation (DOC) spokesman said there were always disgruntled recreational hunters who did not like having commercial hunters around because they competed for deer.
‘‘If they want deer, [they can] step over the fence and go hunting. There are plenty of deer and DOC encourages people to get out there and hunt … it’s recreation that’s good for conservation.’’ O’Leary said helicopter hunters had to maintain a two-kilometre buffer zone from the nearest private property, which was ‘‘a fair chunk of land if the lady wants to hunt’’.
The DOC spokesman said the meat had to be GPS tagged as to where it came from to track and trace the source, and all venison was processed in an approved meat processing plant for wild game. Capturing deer by helicopter was not a fulltime occupation, but depended on venison prices. The price of farmed, chilled venison for export has soared to over $10 a kilogram, however, wild game is at $6-$7/kg.