Wild deer populations are expanding globally in the absence of predators. Welfare considerations affect how we approach both deer themselves and the management interventions they require.
Wild deer welfare involves the welfare of individual animals within the context of population dynamics. Deer populations without natural predators grow until limited by food availability, resulting in periodic winter starvation when populations exceed carrying capacity. Vehicle collisions cause traumatic injuries that may be immediately fatal or result in slow deaths from shock and blood loss. Culling by trained stalkers with appropriate caliber rifles and clean shots represents a welfare-positive management approach relative to natural mortality alternatives — immediate death from a well-placed shot is less prolonged than starvation or disease. The welfare considerations for deer thus span from humane management of necessary culling operations to the suffering from unmanaged population growth and its consequences.