The management of deer in Scotland (and elsewhere) is a matter of mutual concern to nature conservationists and land managers alike.
In the report of the Deer Working Group just over a year ago this recommendation was clear;
The Working Group recommends that the Scottish Government should make a clear commitment to end the use of lead bullets to shoot deer in Scotland, carry out the necessary research and promotion to enable that change to be made after a transition period and, as a part of that, amend The Deer (Firearms, etc.) (Scotland) Order 1985 so that the specifications in paragraph 3(a) of the Order are suitable for the use of non-lead bullets.
https://markavery.info/2020/01/29/get-rid-of-lead-ammunition-from-deer-culling-deer-working-group/
In their response this week, not a bad response overall to the report at first glance, the Scottish Government accepts that recommendation in principle (always watch out when someone adds ‘in principle’ – it often heralds a lack of principle) but that’s about as far as it goes – see here (recommendation 4, p 8). Roseanna Cunningham is even prepared to hide behind ‘work is ongoing at a UK level’ to justify lack of action. Pretty feeble really, when the largest part of the UK deer problem is in Scotland. But there is an election coming up, and we are in the last few weeks of Roseanna Cunningham’s tenure of the role (which she has done passably well).
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The following post has relevance here.