Venison burgers from problem deer that were culled recently are being cooked and provided to the homeless in Dublin as part of an initiative involving the Wild Deer Association of Ireland (WDAI).
DAI has teamed up with Dublin-based charity Lámh Fáilte and is cooking venison burgers for homeless people at a stand located off O’Connell Street each Saturday evening.
The venison is supplied by WDAI members and the burgers are manufactured by Premier Game, a registered game processor based in south Tipperary.
The initiative comes as problems with deer have escalated across the east and north-west of the country over the last 18 months.
The ICMSA and INHFA have reported serious difficulties with deer in Wicklow, Donegal and Connemara, with big numbers coming onto agricultural land as traditional culling has been curtailed due to Covid-19.
Demand for venison has also slumped as a result of the lockdowns and the closure of restaurants.
Ger O’Brien of WDAI said that the association had been in contact with farmers in Donegal where increased deer numbers are causing serious concerns.
The INHFA has flagged this problem, with the association claiming that bigger numbers of breeding stock in national parks and forestry in the north-west and west generally was resulting in greater numbers of deer coming onto farmland.
Mr O’Brien said WDAI was in talks with the Donegal farmers about putting a plan in place to manage deer numbers.
“If farmers contact the WDAI about problems with deer, we will initially do a survey with cameras to tell them the sort of numbers that are there,” Mr O’Brien explained.
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“We will then put a management team in place to cull the deer herd on an ongoing basis,” he added.
He said WDAI, which has around 350 members nationally, has been in contact with deer stalkers in the north-west with a view to putting a “team on the ground” in Donegal.
Mr O’Brien insisted that a planned and sustained culling programme was needed to address the difficulties associated with the growing deer population.
“Recreational deer stalkers won’t do the job for you. They won’t shoot sufficient numbers, and they won’t take out the hinds [females]. And any cull must target the hinds,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We want to see a sustainable number of deer on the ground. But we don’t want to see deer as a problem,” he said.
Alan Finn a team leader with Lámh Fáilte said the charity, which was set up last year, is helping to provide hot food, clean clothing, toiletries and sleeping bags every Saturday evening to people in need. “We have 20-35 volunteers and we get donations from some of the supermarkets, but the volunteers source and cook the food.
“In the last 12 months we have noticed a big increase of homeless people and people in need coming to the service.”
Covid, he says, has a lot to do with that, but the charity is also helping those who have come out of prison and ended up homeless, as well as people in emergency accommodation.
“Upwards of 250 people will come on a Saturday night to avail of our services. Last week 600 burgers were cooked and given out, but it’s usually upwards of 300 burgers on an average night,” said Alan Finn.