Letter: In search of deer-free dog-walking spots in the New Forest
SIR – As a dog owner (and recently-joined member of NFDog) I don't want to re-rehearse the arguments surrounding dogs being kept under close control whilst out on a walk in the New Forest. Clearly they should be.
After some years living away from this area where I was brought up, I've now returned 'home' to the Forest. My partner and I have rescue lurcher dogs; the type of dog that your recent correspondent Charlotte Berryman (Letters, 2nd September) would not consider "suitable" to be here.
She's not wrong; it's deep in the being of lurchers (and many other sorts of dog) to chase deer. To the extent that every walk where we might occasionally consider it safe to let our dogs off-lead here is fraught with tension and worry.
However, our daily walks with dogs on-lead are dispiriting for human and hound alike. It's pretty miserable to be honest – but we want to stay.
Our dogs have good recall and, thanks to our training, are increasingly nonchalant in the company of the Forest livestock, but deer are another matter.
I might be forgiven for returning here with our dogs. When I was a (dog-owning) youngster here, deer were relatively scarce, shy, kept themselves hidden away in the enclosures. They were avoidable.
Not so now – they're literally everywhere, and they're bold! Even on the open, and busy, plain of Longslade there they are.
We're responsible dog-owners who don't want summer beach-goers disturbed, ground-nesters trampled, or deer maimed or killed.
Where can we go to give our dogs the exercise they thrive on, which includes running off-lead?
In all the square mileage of the New Forest thus far we've found one place (dog-owners, don't all rush at once!) – a small arboretum near Brockenhurst. It has 7ft deer-fencing all round it, presumably so that deer don't eat the trees within it.
It's a haven for us. Dogs and deer can share the Forest environment but each be safe. But it's a small area and I don't know of any other like it.
I wonder if some other (carefully chosen, subtly introduced) areas could be deer-fenced too? Deer out, dogs in. I'd like to approach the national park authority and Forestry England on this topic and wonder if others would support it?
With the proliferation of deer in the Forest now perhaps it's time to redefine the daily relationship between them and the other animals, and humans, who surely have every right to enjoy life here too.
Guy Henry,
Bashley
