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The 15th Duke of Bedford allows trophy hunters access to his herd of Pere David’s deer

In a recent article in the Sunday Times, it was revealed that the 15th Duke of Bedford, Andrew Ian Russell, born in Boston, Massachusetts, allows trophy hunters access to his herd of Pere David’s deer (aka Milu) to collect trophies at £6,000 each. These deer, extinct in the wild except for some recently reintroduced populations in reserves in their native China, seem to be high on the list of trophy hunters wanting to bag some really funky animals, supported of course by our good friends in the Safari Club International.

Andy Russell hardly needs the money; he was listed as being worth £490 million on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2005. But perhaps he needs a bit of ready cash, as that worth could be projected on the basis of his huge estate and home at Woburn? So Andy is selling his deer, and according to him, the money earned goes straight back into management of the herd (so more are available to be shot next year?).

What a bunch of nonsense. You don’t need to shoot these deer, they are so tame you could probably walk up to them and kill them with a pocket knife. Nevertheless, some would call it hunting, and if you have some ready cash available, do contact Mike McCrave (The best UK Outfitter with 40 years experience, also known as “the man in the kilt.com” in hunting circles) to arrange a Pere David’s deer for you.

PERE DAVID’S DEER

These deer actually have a bit of an interesting history. The species was “discovered” by Armand David, a French missionary working in China. The only surviving animals were kept in an Imperial hunting park near Beijing, and belonged to the Chinese Emperor. Those were eaten by Western and Japanese troops during the Boxer Rebellion. Luckily, and illegally, some deer were exported to Europe, and bred, forming the basis for a current worldwide zoo population. Reintroductions to China took place to China in the late 1980s.

Even Jane Goodall got involved, crediting Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford for “saving” the Milu. Herbrand collected them from European zoos and bred them at Woburn. While I doubt that Herbrand would have agreed with Andy to allow “trophy” hunting, he appears not to have been an easy man. His grandson, John Ian Robert Russell (13th Duke) had this to say about Herbrand:  “A selfish, forbidding man, with a highly developed sense of public duty and ducal responsibility, he lived a cold, aloof existence, isolated from the outside world by a mass of servants, sycophants and an eleven-mile wall.” Herbrand died in 1937, John died in 2002, Henry Robin Ian Russell (14th Duke) died in 2003, and now we have the seemingly cash-strapped 15th Duke – allowing trophy hunters to come in to “manage” his herds. We suggest instead he sell some of his land to support his lifestyle…

We stand back in amazement. An initial conservation effort is now turned into a money spinner for a supposedly impoverished Duke worth about £500 million? Thank you Sunday Times for exposing this reprehensible example of canned hunting going on in the UK. 

Picture credit: huntingvacationscotland.com/images/pere_david_stag_250w_v2.jpg

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