“The Blue Pool Nature Reserve & Tearooms Established in 1935 – Family Attraction in Wareham, Dorset.” The Isle of Purbeck’s Blue Pool, situated on the Furzebrook Estate, makes a great deal out of the local Sika Deer, featuring them on its website. Introduced in the 19th century to deer parks in Dorset, Sika Deer are native to east Asia but escaped and have been accepted – by some – as part of the local ecology and a tourist attraction. The Blue Pool Facebook page stated in October 2024 that “Nature can have such a positive impact on our mental well-being. Take a stroll through the woodland, listen to the sounds of the birds above, and discover the peaceful spots to sit for a while and admire the views. Happy World Mental Health Day from The Blue Pool.” Great sentiments, somewhat undermined by the invitations by the Furzebrook Estate to shooting clubs to come and ‘stalk’ the Sika here. Members of the Capreolus Club (a shooting club sponsored by Swarovski Optik and which describes itself as “a unique members club committed to the environment via a climate-focused diet”) in particular seem to enjoy coming to Purbeck and the Blue Pool (in 2022 for £395/person, and a whopping £1250 for a weekend in 2024) to take to “the high seats”, drooling over the opportunities to kill deer here. The same Club enjoys the shooting gallery aspect of the area reporting in 2022 that “Once again, all six rifles on the trip took deer, with the majority of members shooting two each and one lucky member shooting five.” That’s a lot of meat even for the most committed carnivore…A number of supporters have emailed us about this situation. While some accept that large numbers of deer can cause habitat damage. they understandably decry the hypocrisy of using the deer to attract tourist revenue and then selling those same animals to what looks very like ‘trophy hunts’ and shooting clubs in other parts of the country. As one supporter argued, if there are concerns about there being ‘too many’ deer around the Blue Pool using contraception in such a localised area is vastly preferable to selling off those deer to shooters…
The Blue Pool/Furzebrook Estate (Dorset)
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