clivej wrote: »

Prime Time never did the hunting or shooting community any favors.

I think you’re right. Be prepared for a lot of Bambi analogies, why don’t army snipers to do this very dangerous work, how can people own these weapons of mass destruction five mile lethal range icbm rifles and of course will someone think of the children....

Accompanied by a lot of tuttutting by O’Callaghan or whoever presents the program these days. I nearly forgot, an obligatory appearance by John and Bernie.

If it pans out to be any different I will be very pleasantly surprised.

Must be Covid silly season in RTE... Got us maxxed out on Covid and now have to show something that the GP can feel outraged by

Be interesting to see which MUGS have been suckered into representing or thought they could do some free PR and had zero clues about dealing with the media for our side of the argument.:rolleyes:

Ok let's see what sort of hatchet job will be done AGAIN on us by Slimetime investigates:(:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

They took a more lighthearted approach to shooting in the last piece they did a few weeks ago on RTE. The last PT hatchet job on shooting got something like 50 complaints to the BAI, so I'll be surprised if they attempt another one. Still have to consider the recent slant RTE has been taking, along with the fact that the Ecos are in government, so maybe I should be more cautious. I did hear that there's a lot of TB in the deer population this year, maybe that's the angle.

Even though it's almost impossible to get a BAI complaint upheld, tonight will tell if our efforts had any effect.

garrettod wrote: »

If RTE come out with more sh1te tonight, it'll be important that the number of complaints is significantly higher than last time, as they can't be allowed to just keep pumping out the same old crap to suit a few personal agendas.

It could be interesting, Prime Time have a good reputation although I'm not sure what's so controversial about the current situation. Maybe Eamon Ryan's idea of using wolves for population control will get a mention.

Here's their online article on it:
https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2021/0608/1226923-deer-seal-culling-overpopulation/

It appears to be about the culling of deer and seals.
They have some thoughts from the beloved Mr. Carmody too.

On the face of the above article it looks like a fairly balanced program except for a few crazy ideas from you would imagine rational adults.Darting seals with a contraception dart and talking about deer and saying they are the same as cats and dogs is something a teenager might say.
The idea that animals should control their own population is absolutely the right idea but unfortunately an idea that is not feasible as long as humans are around interfering with the world.
If people think shooting a deer in a field while it's eating it's breakfast is horrible they would be absolutely freaked out if they seen how chicken,beef or lamb was produced.

I'll stick it on this evening to see what sort of a slant is put on things.

Asus1 wrote: »

On the face of the above article it looks like a fairly balanced program except for a few crazy ideas from you would imagine rational adults.Darting seals with a contraception dart and talking about deer and saying they are the same as cats and dogs is something a teenager might say.
The idea that animals should control their own population is absolutely the right idea but unfortunately an idea that is not feasible as long as humans are around interfering with the world.
If people think shooting a deer in a field while it's eating it's breakfast is horrible they would be absolutely freaked out if they seen how chicken,beef or lamb was produced.

Maybe humans should control their own population.

Bog Trotter99 wrote: »

See how they mix the culling of deer which is justified with the culling of seals which can never be justified.

Put the two together and you get nasty men with guns.

In fairness, I think the culling of seals is probably justified, they’re destroying the breathing grounds of wild salmon and other species. I think (I’m open to correction) the population of seals is 10 times what it was in the 80’s

Richard308 wrote: »

In fairness, I think the culling of seals is probably justified, they’re destroying the breathing grounds of wild salmon and other species. I think (I’m open to correction) the population of seals is 10 times what it was in the 80’s

I would think that illegal fishing and lice infestation from fish farms is more to blame for any shortage of wild salmon than seals. It's great to see seals in our seas and harbours, they were threatened for too long, and if left alone nature will find a balance.

You can't say the same for sika which as an invasive species have reached epidemic proportions due to the lack of animal predators.

they did a big clear out (cull) of deer in killarney town park less than 2 years ago I heard there were signs up saying that part of the demesne were shut off from the public to cull deer. I don't know what the problem is.

Caught it there. Too many deer, too many seals.. cull/don’t cull, probably need to cull, don’t know how many deer cos there’s been no survey. Animals rights people don’t like the cull idea, they want to give the seals contraceptives and rewild(wolves I’d assume)to sort out the deer. That’s the bones of it .

I didn’t watch it but by the sound of things there’s grounds to be pleasantly surprised by RTÉ’s reporting on hunting related matters.

Loads of stuff you could find fault with, or could have been explored more, but not the hatchet job I expected.
Not link made between the increase forestry planting and deer expansion. No mention of deer not staying in the national park ( wild area) and coming out evey night for their dinner. No mention of how big of a wilderness you would need for the wolf ( that will solve every problem???).
Probably the big topic they dodged, what is the magic number? Who or how do you decide?
Was expecting much worse.