Police defend shooting white deer in Bootle street after backlash

Police have defended shooting an "out of control" white deer that had been roaming the streets after an angry backlash on social media.

Merseyside Police said there had been "huge efforts" to save the wild animal which was shot dead in Bootle.

Officers tried to sedate it for nine hours and were "gutted" when they had to destroy it for public safety, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley said.

People reacted angrily on social media, describing it as "shocking and brutal".

Armed officers were able to secure the deer on an industrial estate after receiving reports of the fallow buck running along various roads at about 08:45 BST on Sunday.

However, police said they were "unable to get assistance" after making inquiries "to find an organisation who could assist with recovering the deer safely".

'Difficult and distressing'

Liverpool author and animal lover Nina Antonia, who also expressed outrage on social media, told the BBC it was "a very bad omen" because the deer was symbolic in folklore.

"It was brutal. Any society that does not look after animals is a sign that that society is in decay," she said.

The RSPCA earlier said it had advised police to "leave the deer as it would make its own way back home" eventually.

The British Deer Society tweeted it understood people felt "shocked and upset", adding that the sad situation "must have been difficult and distressing for all of those involved".

It said it believed "every reasonable effort" had been made by police "to achieve a non-lethal solution" but there was "no other option in the interest of public safety and the welfare of a highly stressed deer".

The deer was shot after nine hours trying to sedate it, police said

Freshfield Animal Rescue Centre in Liverpool said it was a "dreadful tragedy nobody wanted to happen".

Director Helen Stanbury said it was a "very emotive example of how wildlife is being destroyed as a result of our urbanising nature".

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside said it was "very sad but at least it had been killed humanely".

Mr Critchley said officers spent nine hours trying to tranquilise the deer which was "in distress and out of control" and police were "totally committed" to moving it to a rural location.

He said the public's safety was at the heart of the "difficult decision" to shoot it and officers were "absolutely gutted".

Several tranquiliser darts had failed to sedate it and the animal was still in "considerable distress", so alongside a vet the decision was made to destroy it, he added.

One man supported the move on Twitter, saying: "It is amazing how many people in Liverpool have no idea about wild animals and how dangerous they can be."

What causes a deer to be white?

• White deer are usually fallow, a species that is widely distributed across much of the UK

• The white fallow are not seen as often as the other three main colour types (common, menil and black) but tend to stand out more obviously against other members of a herd

• Fallow are unusual in that they occur in so many different colour varieties, which can be attributed to selective breeding in the deer parks where they were once kept before becoming feral in the UK

• The white deer are not albinos. They have normal eye pigmentation, although their hooves and noses might be somewhat paler than the other colour varieties

• Unusually pale coats in any deer are usually a result of under-production of melanin, the chemical responsible for skin pigmentation

Source: The British Deer Society

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