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Brian Pelletier's avatar

Thank you for all the work you did on this important topic. I am from the Midwest USA, where hunting deer is a specific season and not all hunters get the single deer they are licensed to shoot. Of course that means they are highly valued.

It’s amazing to me that there is such an overpopulation in the U.K., and tragic that they cannot all be eaten and used. More people should be learning how to break down the animal and use as much as possible - there is amazing sausage and leather wasted. But as you say, we are very far removed from our food, unfortunately.

Thank you.

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Cheryl  Queen of Markets's avatar

Thank you for reading the piece Brian. Interesting how different the situation is where you live.

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Stella's avatar

I love venison and cook and eat a lot of it - and as for how close I am to it at any time, there are a lot of muntjac where I live, which is a small market town in the Midlands. Even so I was surprised to be nearly bowled over the other day by a roe deer running full tilt down our street at 06:45 as I was heading out for a run.

As regards halal, it's my understanding that the hunter needs to say a prayer as they take the shot. I could be wrong, but it was a subject that came up for discussion on a Facebook group (Giving up the Game), that exists to unite people who want game meat with people who can provide it, quite often for free. Everyone that did comment from a hunter's point of view said this was the case.

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Cheryl  Queen of Markets's avatar

Hi Stella. I've gone into details about halal venison in my piece after speaking to the certification authority I mention. And I spoke to one of the stalkers who was mentioned on the Giving up the Game Facebook page; I've mentioned that too. If you're in the Midlands you'll be close to Ethical Game.

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Stella's avatar

Ethical Game looks good - thank you for the suggestion. I shall follow up on that, especially as I see they had hare at really good prices too - I managed to get hare at Borough Market just before Christmas last year, the first time I've had any in ages, and I paid a lot more than that for it.

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Sound practice well-being's avatar

I don’t eat meat at all but my husband does. He is very happy to eat venison but it’s bizarrely hard to get hold of in a part of the uk that’s full of deer.

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Cheryl  Queen of Markets's avatar

That's one of the reasons I wrote this piece. Wild venison should be available everywhere. Check the links at the bottom. I'll try to add more when I have a moment.

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Sound practice well-being's avatar

I’m in Dolgellau in Gwynedd, we buy from local producers and farmers markets but no one has venison. We would buy it if they did.

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Cheryl  Queen of Markets's avatar

How frustrating. When you ask, what do they say?

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Sound practice well-being's avatar

There’s no demand 🙄

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