Jim Barrington used to be head of the "League Against Cruel Sports" (LACS) but when he actually began to learn about wildlife he realized almost everything coming out of the groups was worse than gibberish; it was wrong.
Since Barrington's departure to the other side of the debate (i.e. in favor of compassionate sensible management), LACS membership has declined from 18,000 to just 4,500, and the group has found itself in financial straights, forcing it to move from London to Surrey.
As for LACS deer management, as I noted back in 2007.
Amazingly, people who know almost nothing about wildlife and wild places, are often quite sure they are capable of being good stewards of wild lands and wildlife.
"What's to know and what's to do?" they ask. "You just buy the land and keep the hunters out, and everything works out great."
Well, maybe not.
Proof can be seen at the wildlife "sanctuary" managed by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) at Baronsdown in Somerset, U.K. The romantics at the League got a big bequest some time back, and put it into acquiring 225 acres which they decided to use as a "deer sanctuary."
The first thing they did, of course, was put up signs to keep hunters out.
Guess what happened then? Well, for starters, the deer population skyrocketed and the deer started stripping all the vegetation from the forests and fields.
So what did the folks at LACS do then? That's right -- they began feeding the deer in winter.
Of coure even more deer showed up, and soon an area of just 225 acres had more than 300 deer on it.
The animals, still hungry and now even more overcrowded, began eating each others foeces, thereby spreading flukes and worms across the entire herd.
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