THIS was the gruesome sight that awaited a young family visiting Innisfallen Island on the Lakes of Killarney this Friday afternoon.
The family, on an Easter break from Cork, included three young children and they opted to take a traditional boat trip to the island they have visited in the past.
But what they found when they got there, shortly after 12 noon, caused significant upset.
A dead Sika deer was clearly visible on the ground near a pathway and, close by, there was a deep pool of blood which looked fresh.
“It was the blood the kids spotted and, thankfully, not the deer,” said the woman who sent snapshots of what they found to KillarneyToday.com.
She said she loves Killarney and visits every year with the children who are now aged three, six and eight.
“We came across this bloody mess. Imagine the explaining I had to do when out on Innisfallen. Hopefully, (there will be) no nightmares tonight,” said the visitor who asked that her name not be published to protect her family’s privacy.
She added that it appeared that no attempt had been made to clean up the mess as water could easily have washed the blood away.
The woman also stressed that they encountered other deer on the island who looked very healthy and seemed calm.
Last Wednesday KillarneyToday.com reported that a deer cull on Innisfallen Island had commenced following shock revelations that the animals were starving to death on the historic monastic site.
The matter was brought to public attention by Killarney councillor John Joe Culloty who said he was shocked by the ghastly sight he discovered on a visit the popular tourist attraction.
He found four dead and rotting Sika deer at various locations on the island with other starving, emaciated animals wandering around with no fodder in sight. Judging by the condition and stench from the dead deer, it appeared that they had been there for a number of weeks, he maintained.
“They are starving and it’s a sad state of affairs that we have come to this,” Cllr Culloty stated.
The Killarney councillor estimated that there are between 30 and 40 deer, not in good health, still on the island and, for their own sake, they need to be culled as it is the most humane thing to do.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service said there is a significant challenge balancing the issues of conservation with forestry and agriculture and the need to manage deer populations in a responsible and ethical manner. The NPWS confirmed, however, that a cull had commenced last Wednesday but it is not known if the discovery made by the family from Cork was connected to the controlled cull.
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