AFTER the revelations of the scrutiny meeting on January 7 at Forest of Dean District Council when the deputy surveyor of the Forest gave an update on the Forestry Commission’s cull of boar in the Forest of Dean, I would like to make the following points:

Kevin Stannard (the deputy surveyor) still cannot assure anyone that the Forestry Commission thermal imaging survey is in any way accurate.

He thinks there are 1,018 boar in the Forest and that to have a 400 total of boar he must cull 56 per cent this year.

This amounts to 575 boar. They expect the number to increase next year.

I do not know of any naturalist who walks the Forest who agrees with this number.

There are unlikely to be this many. No-one has been able to count boar accurately!

It appears that government, in the shape of Defra, is funding six rangers, two of whom are trainees, this year to kill boar.

An extra larder has been funded and the old one kept on for road kill and diseased boar.

The rangers also kill deer but it seems an awful lot of gunfire in the Forest to deal with these two species when we have austerity on other matters.

No animal has ever been controlled solely by culling, without other means of humane control being employed.

Grey squirrels, foxes and badgers come back and often reproduce at a higher rate to make up for numbers lost. So do boar.

The Forestry Commission is merely containing a situation to appease those who do not like boar!

The Forestry Commission says its sole concern is to maintain the woodlands of the statutory forest.

It still will not get involved with fencing land vulnerable to boar digging such as playing fields, public amenities and even private land if required and the council is equally negligent on this issue.

They do not carry out their educational role to tell the public not to feed boar.

I have been told that some picnic sites in the Forest are prime attractions for these animals because tourists leave food there.

The Forestry Commission’s activity in the deep forest is still attracting boar into settlements.

Lydney Town Council needs to get together with inhabitants to help fund fences.

Boar are being mown down on the roads in considerable numbers. Why are there no signs warning of wild animals and speed restrictions on roads throughout the Forest?

In Baden Wurttenberg in Germany, the local authorities have built boar tunnels and bridges over roads.

The Forestry Commission still seems unable to get its collective head round the considerable problem of poaching.

It throws this onto the police who have one wildlife crime officer for the whole of Gloucestershire.

The Deputy Surveyor dropped the disease factor into the mix but was very vague when asked about this.

Last year, diseased boar, according to Forestry Commission statistics, were a very small proportion of shot boar.

A few may have bovine TB but this is not yet proved and all mammals, including humans, can carry this.

A diseased population in animals is a stressed population.

I conclude that the Forestry Commission now regard shooting boar as a containment policy which keeps the level of public complaints at a level it can deal with.

It intends us to get used to this and not question it.

Boar and deer are sentient, feeling animals like us and if they were not shot down they would regulate their own numbers in the forest.

As fences in sensitive areas and a non-feeding policy would minimise contact with humans, there would be very little friction between the species.

This brings me to the scrutiny committee. I was not allowed to speak though I had been in correspondence for a week with the chairman about his discretionary powers to allow some public input.

I had to listen with increasing anger as two councillors called for the eradication of the entire species and another asked if private hunting parties should be brought in to raise revenue.

How can these people, our so-called representatives, make such silly statements, when most people in the Forest support the presence of the boar and when public hunting would soon lead to human or canine casualties.

Kevin Stannard said that the Forestry Commission could only eradicate the species if public opinion turned against the boar completely.

I hope this never happens but our fair-weather public servants will oblige if they do.

Talking about democracy and getting things done, I recently wrote to Mark Harper, our MP, on the subject of the factory farming of game birds and the imprisonment of partridges for breeding purposes in metal boxes, both practices being very cruel and supported by our present government.

His reply did not deal with any of the issues raised but he informed me that the government are committed to animal welfare.

So much for our democracy. If we are represented by councillors who cannot think straight and an MP who cannot give a straight answer to a straight question, I despair for the future of wild animals in the Forest.

– Joyce Moss, Lydney.