Calls for wild deer cull in Kerry

The IFA in Kerry has called for a cull by the Wildlife Service of protected wild deer in Kerry after claims of several accidents…

The IFA in Kerry has called for a cull by the Wildlife Service of protected wild deer in Kerry after claims of several accidents and near accidents on roads in the south of the county.

Local farmers also say deer are freely grazing valuable grasslands during the winter months.

There has been "an explosion" of deer, native red and sika, in Kerry in recent years with an estimated 3,000 in the county.

A young man on a motorcycle is still in hospital with broken legs after hitting a red deer in the Moll's Gap area shortly before Christmas.

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Details of the incident emerged at a meeting of IFA members and rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Kilgarvan this week.

In another incident, a student at the Institute of Technology in Tralee sustained €180 damage to his car while driving home at night.

There were also accounts of elderly drivers hitting and having near misses with deer.

The majority of accidents involving deer occur during the winter months, when the native large red deer come down from the mountains to graze the lowlands.

The smaller sika deer, originally introduced to this country from Japan and now also protected, are equally a problem at this time of year, the farmers said.

Gardaí in the county have confirmed that there were up to a dozen reports of accidents involving deer in the various districts in 2004. However, not all accidents are reported, they said.

"It's not the deer's fault that he runs into a car.

"Any wild animal blinded by lights will run towards the car," Mr Michael Murphy, chairman of the rural development committee of the IFA in Kerry, said yesterday.

The deer are also availing freely of grassland during the winter, and this was a direct cost to farmers who spent money fertilising those fields, Mr Murphy said.