IT’S A national scandal that more than 50,000 wild deer are being killed illegally a year. That’s going to wipe these majestic animals off the landscape within a matter of decades.

But introduce a ten-year prison term for anyone found guilty of illegally poaching venison and you would see a drastic overnight improvement.

Severe? Hardly.

For what is this society coming to when cheap, often dangerously contaminated meat (most poacher gangs fail to use professional cold storage) means more than safeguarding the beauty of our countryside?

Aled Jones, Mount Crescent, Bridlington.