Sporting Shooters Association of Australia SA defends state government’s aerial cull of feral deer

A “scurrilous rant” over deer hunters in helicopters in SA’s South East has been emphatically shot down.

Claims that people on the ground are at risk of being killed during aerial deer kills in the South East have been emphatically shot down by the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.

The allegations against the Limestone Coast Landscape Board’s state-sanctioned culls, done from helicopters, were made in a email claiming to represent the association and sent to an array of politicians and media.

While such culls are routinely carried out, the association and the state government say they are done safely.

The association says the names on the email were not on its database and it believes the mysterious sender mistook a recent aerial survey of deer using low-flying helicopters – in which no shooting was done – for a cull.

Association president David Handyside labelled the suspicious email from “Ash Vall”, and signed off by “Dominic”, was a “scurrilous rant” and “Facebook keyboard warrior stuff”.

He said shooters were not on the ground during helicopter operations and claims of danger were “not only wrong, but ridiculous”.

“We have ground crews who go in, depending on the terrain … before a helicopter cull and after a helicopter cull, to maximise the efficiency of the whole thing,” he said.

“Because often you’ll get animals hiding in steep gullies and so forth.

A photograph of a fallow deer buck in Australia. The buck's antlers are still in velvet.

“It is a declared pest species and it is a particular danger on the roads because they’re not good things to hit in your car. They’re bigger than kangaroos.

“And they do an enormous amount of damage to crops, particularly tree plantations – they can eliminate them when (trees are) young.”

The landscape board’s feral deer project officer Aidan Laslett had said in an announcement ahead of the aerial survey that there would be no shooting.

“While the helicopter will be flying low over these areas during the count, it is important to advise the community that monitoring only of feral deer will be taking place,” he said.

“Every effort will be made to minimise disturbance to farm houses, working sheds, horse yards and areas containing livestock.”

Using thermal technology, the survey was intended to determine the number and distribution and abundance of the region’s feral deer population in conservation parks and private land.

Sightings on private land will be reported to landholders, who are responsible for eradication on their properties.

The twice-yearly culls resulted in the landscape board killing almost 2000 feral deer in 2020-21.

Last spring, a five-day aerial operation last spring covered 128,000ha and removed 603 feral deer across 57 private properties and 22 state reserves.
A government spokesperson said: “Before any aerial control of pest animals Government staff obtain approval from land managers where the culling will occur. By doing so, farmers to can ensure all people and livestock on the land are safe.”