A man has expressed his disgust after poachers shot dead two young deer on his family’s land using high-powered rifles.
The remains of the stags were found on lands at Fintown in the Donegal Gaeltacht on Friday.
Both deer, estimated to be between one and two years old, had been shot from the roadside and left to die.
Joseph Brennan, on whose brother’s lands the animals were killed, said he is outraged by the ongoing illegal killing of the deer.
Mr Brennan, a well-known environmentalist and member of the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team, said the practice is becoming all-too common in Donegal.
“These people are arriving in the dead of night is high-powered jeeps with high-powered lights and high-powered rifles.
“They stun the deer with the lights and then simply pick them off. It’s just disgusting and it is happening more and more,” he said.
Mr Brennan added that even more sickening on this occasion was that the dere were simply shot for some else’s pleasure and not for their meat.
“It is illegal to shoot a protected species between dusk and dawn and this is what happened here. You hear there is an increase in the demand for venison meat and some deer are shot illegally for that reason.
“But to shoot a deer from a roadside just to kill it and then leave it dying while you drive off is just beyond words,” he said.
The deer most likely belong to the huge herd of deer which normally reside with the sprawling grounds of Glenveagh National Park.
Some of the deer manage to get through the protective fencing surrounding the park and some are killed after roaming out onto roadways.
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