Baronsdown is described as a “sanctuary” by LACS but has been at the centre of a series of scandals about the management of the deer herd dating back to 2001. Autopsies have shown deer to be diseased and in appalling physical condition. One of LACS’ own employees reported 107 deer found dead or dying in a one-year period.

Watch the video here

 http://www.friction.tv/index.php?vid=269


The footage shows one stag collapsing and then being killed with a knife before having its neck broken on 1st April. The carcass is then bundled into the back of a vehicle by LACS employee Paul Tillsley. A week later a second young stag, barely alive, was shot and taken away.


Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “For years there has been evidence that the lack of proper deer management at Baronsdown has been promoting cruelty. The horrific state of the deer in this film, and the long history of reported suffering, is not acceptable.


“The League Against Cruel Sports has refused to sign up to the Government backed Deer Initiative which promotes ‘a sustainable and balanced population of wild deer’, and instead continues to cause suffering by neglect. This can come as no surprise to LACS which has been warned on many occasions by local experts that deer are suffering and dying.

“Protecting the welfare of wild deer is the responsibility of all land managers. It is sheer hypocrisy that LACS is failing in that responsibility whilst it claims to campaign for animal welfare legislation.

”In the past it has ignored the advice of veterinary experts and the British Deer Society, but the evidence is now beyond dispute. It is time for LACS to sign up to a proper deer management plan, or to explain why it is causing this level of suffering”.








Baronsdown timeline


June 10 1998 – LACS threatens to sell its West country deer sanctuaries. The decision is overturned amid accusations that it is betraying hundreds of its members.

May 4 2001 – LACS state that a proposal to pull out of St Nicholas Priory at Baronsdown has now been rejected by its executive committee. The league has recently set up a new company, Working for Wildlife, of which Mr Ivor Annetts is chairman. "There is and never has been any intention of selling St Nicholas Priory but it is quite clear that someone is trying to damage the league."

May 22 2001 – Exmoor farmers fear that deer living on the Baronsdown “sanctuary” are threatening to spread TB across the moor.

June 25 2001 – Reports show that deer living in a sanctuary on Exmoor owned by the League Against Cruel Sports are overcrowded, prone to disease and may have to be culled.

November 24 2002 – Dozens of deer are allegedly dying of starvation and disease on a sanctuary owned by the League Against Cruel Sports because the anti-hunting group refuses to allow any form of culling. A deerstalker who has worked for the anti-hunting organisation says the site is overcrowded and half of the 350-strong herd should be culled.

December 1 2002 – The British Deer Society is calling for an independent inquiry into allegations that the League Against Cruel Sports, the anti-hunting animal welfare group, is neglecting deer on its sanctuary on Exmoor. The league's own deerstalker, Gordon Pearce, who took a series of photographs of the deer, accused the organisation of failing to heed his warnings that the animals did not have enough food. 107 had died in a 12 month period. He said the 350-strong herd needed to be culled in order to allow the remaining animals to thrive.

December 2 2002 – LACS invited the RSPCA to inspect its red deer yesterday amid a row about overcrowding on its Exmoor sanctuary. The League has threatened legal action over a claim that dozens of deer are dying from disease and starvation on its sanctuary at Baronsdown, near Fullerton.

February 15 2003 – Shadow Minister for the Countryside, James Gray, visited LACS deer sanctuary at Baronsdown on Exmoor yesterday after claiming in the House of Commons that the deer were ill-treated. The League turned them away, claiming the "advisers" were stalwarts of the hunting fraternity who would have been refused entry as a matter of principle.

June 9 2003 – The spectre of a cull among red deer on Exmoor has been raised following the discovery of tuberculosis in a deer shot near a LACS sanctuary. Two red deer were shot several hundred yards from the Baronsdown sanctuary on Exmoor.

July 8 2003 – Claims that a Westcountry animal sanctuary is harbouring infectious diseases have been vehemently denied by LACS. A vet has estimated that up half the animals that seek shelter in the 250 acres of the unfenced area on Exmoor could be infected with TB and that many have parasites and lung worm as a result of poor management and overstocking.

December 5 2003 – LACS under pressure to stop providing extra feed for deer at its controversial sanctuary on Exmoor after Government wildlife experts warned the practice could spread diseases like TB in herds. In a confidential report the National Wildlife Management Team warned ministers that the supplementary feeding of deer should be "discouraged" because it encourages deer to gather in a way that could increase the risk of disease.

February 15 2004 – LACS has been accused of using "illegal" methods to carry out culls of its own deer after a member of staff was filmed shooting them from the window of a Land Rover. LACS employee Graham Floyd was videoed repeatedly firing a rifle at red deer at the league's controversial Baronsdown sanctuary near Dulverton in Somerset, which was set up in 1959.

November 5 2004 – A war of words has erupted over claims that the League Against Cruel Sports had obstructed an investigation into the spread of bovine TB on Exmoor. The respected British Deer Society (BDS) said it was "very disappointed" by the failure of the league to agree to an investigation of TB levels at its controversial Baronsdown deer sanctuary on Exmoor. LACS dismissed the claim as "inaccurate".

December 26 2004 – Baronsdown is at the centre of allegations that it is a breeding ground for deadly tuberculosis, casting a cloud over the organisation's vision for a sustainable future for the animals after hunting is banned. BDS conducted a trial cull of deer on the boundary of the sanctuary at Baronsdown, near Dulverton in Somerset, early last year. TB was confirmed in all eight animals shot. Another nine showed symptoms.

May 29 2005 – Anti-hunt campaigners are secretly planning to buy up thousands of acres of land where game shooting takes place in order to block the pastime, as they widen their attack on country sports. A leaked internal report from LACS reveals that, with the 20-year battle won to secure a ban on foxhunting, the organisation is turning its attention to shooting. One site earmarked to be sold is St Nicholas Priory in Baronsdown near Exmoor.

LACS Chief Exec Douglas Batchelor Baronsdown quotes


Feb 2004 "It is rubbish that the deer are being found dead in the undergrowth”.

Nov 2002 "Gordon Pearce brought his views to our attention. We have listened to what he's said, looked at our land and its carrying capacity, looked at the number of deer on it and the health of them and come to the conclusion that we do not need to cull any deer."

June 2001 "A managed humane cull is not something we would be against but there is no evidence it is required."