How and why and under what circumstances has the slaughter of sentient beings to save plants and trees become acceptable to civilized human beings?

Rationalizations for this mass killing boggle the thinking mind. Awareness of this deer culling demands urging that this violence cease wherever it is being perpetrated — in this circumstance and elsewhere in a rapidly developing brutish and apathetic world.

Please join the voices of those whose kindness and whose nurturing of living beings grows exponentially second by second. I include the letter, which has come to my attention today, below…and I am in complete agreement with its content.

The above is my response to the below message I received via Facebook…

[NEWS FLASH & URGENT REQUEST! 27 April 2012]

9 hours ago I received a reply from Aberdeen City Council to a ‘Freedom of Information’ request I made on March 25th. The main information enclosed in that reply is that Aberdeen City Council have killed 22 of the circa 30 ro…e deer that lived on Tullos Hill. That’s not a “management cull” to reduce numbers – that’s an out and out mass slaughter; a massacre of healthy, sentient deer to plant trees which are unlikely, deer or no deer, to reach maturity on Tullos Hill.

I would like all of you, wherever you live, to send a letter or email of protest to Aberdeen City Council and to ‘The Woodland Trust’. I’ve attached a draft which you can copy and paste and add your own name and address before emailing. You have every right to be very angry but please keep the communications polite.

Please send your protest to the three email addresses below. I’m not 100% sure of the address for Sue Holden so please use the general enquiry one as well. Incidentally I know that a few of our supporters are also supporters of ‘The Woodland Trust’. Did you know you are paying the wages of 8 PR and Media Officers?

If you are in or near Aberdeen the Funeral Protest on Tullos Hill is going ahead this Saturday. Contact Suzanne onsgvk27@aol.com for more info.

Forward this to anyone you think might be interested.

Cheers 4 now,

John

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Sample Message below:

Dear Mrs. Watts and Ms Holden,

I learned today that, in a late response to a request for information under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, Aberdeen City Council have told the charity Animal Concern Advice Line that 22 roe deer have been killed as part of your joint initiative to create a new woodland on Tullos Hill in Aberdeen under the Tree For Every Citizen initiative and Diamond Jubilee Woods project.

As only around 30 deer lived on and around Tullos Hill this has been more of a mass slaughter than a cull or management programme to reduce numbers.

This massacre was conducted despite opposition from at least three local Community Councils, over 200 letters and e-mails, over 4,000 petition signatures and letters of protest from a number of animal welfare groups including the Scottish SPCA, Animal Concern and Animal Concern Advice Line.

These animals were killed for a planting programme on a hill where I understand an earlier planting scheme failed due to poor management, failure to control weed growth and use of inappropriate tree protection sleeves.

I think Aberdeen City Council should be thoroughly ashamed of their key role in this atrocity. As for The Woodland Trust, I for one will make a point of avoiding any of your appeals for funds or volunteers and I will have no hesitation in warning others that if they support your work they may well be supporting the killing of innocent animals.

What angers me most is that there was no need to kill the deer. If, unlike other experts, you truly believed the deer posed a serious risk to the survival of the trees, you could have protected the saplings using a mixture of the right type of tree protection sleeves and deer fencing to exclude deer from certain areas.

I understand that this is a long-term project and that the culling of deer on Tullos Hill is to continue for another five to ten years. I ask you to change your modus operandi from killing deer to physically protecting the trees.

Yours sincerely,

(Your name and country)

※ Email Adresses:
sueholden@woodlandtrust.org.uk, enquiries@woodlandtrust.org.uk, chiefexecutive@aberdeencity.gov.uk

※ Cc. Addresses:
press@wspa.org.uk, info@ifaw.org, epar@yunord.net, info@worldanimal.net, idainfo@idausa.org, info@spcai.org, a.erler@eurogroupforanimals.org, acal@jfrobins.force9.co.uk, info@thenokillnation.org, info@alleycat.org, s.vantichelen@eurogroupforanimals.org, b.krech@eurogroupforanimals.org, info@ad-international.org, info@aldf.org, general.info@thomsonreuters.com, awi@awionline.org, voanews@voanews.com, editor@medialens.org, news@itn.co.uk, letters@guardian.co.uk, letters@observer.co.uk , newseditor@independent.co.uk, foreigneditor@independent.co.uk, m.king@independent.co.uk, features@independent.co.uk, editor@mediaguardian.co.uk, news@bbc.co.uk, newsonline@bbc.co.uk, info@bbc.co.uk, editorial@dailymailonline.co.uk, news@dailymail.co.uk, news@mailonsunday.co.uk, dtnews@telegraph.co.uk, stnews@telegraph.co.uk, mirrornews@mirror.co.uk, FOXaroundtheworld@foxnews.com, fncspecials@foxnews.com, FNS@foxnews.com, newswatch@foxnews.com, Foxreport@foxnews.com, happeningnow@foxnews.com, Special@foxnews.com, voicers@edit.nydailynews.com, nytnews@nytimes.com, pressroom@turner.com, ctc-TribLetter@tribune.com, 48hours@cbsnews.com, bpc@cbsnews.com, evening@cbsnews.com, pma@cbsnews.com, 360@cnn.com, webb@metro.se, contactus@examiner.com, scoop@huffingtonpost.com, info@huffingtonpost.com, journalist@journalisten.no, 2400@db.no, tillysas@tin.it, info@animalieanimali.it, leser@welt.de, kompakt@welt.de, online@welt.de, redaktion@tagesspiegel.de, leserbriefe@tagesspiegel.de, info@cphpost.dk, news@perthnow.newsltd.com.au, leserbriefe@diepresse.com, weirs@sundaytimes.newsltd.com.au, letters@theaustralian.com.au, online@theaustralian.com.au, world@theaustralian.com.au,city@thestar.ca, kokusai@kyodonews.jp, Newsroom@globeandmail.com, calgaryherald@reachcanada.com,

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Postal addresses:

Mrs. Valerie Watts,
Chief Executive Officer,
Aberdeen City Council,
Marischal College
Broad Street
Aberdeen AB10 1AB

Ms Sue Holden,
Chief Executive,
The Woodland Trust,
Kempton Way,
Grantham,
Lincolnshire, NG31 6LL