UK Man Receives No Jail Time for Poaching, Slitting Deer’s Throat in His Home

A 32 year-old UK man will avoid jail time after confessing to slitting a deer’s throat in his home, in suburban London, and bragging about it on a Facebook page entitled “Deer Stalkers International.” As the Daily Mirror reports, Mian Zeeshan Shahid poached the deer, bound it in the trunk of his car, then subsequently killed it at his home, on December 23 of last year.

The first report of the incident came when a woman called police after witnessing a man remove an injured deer from a field and carry it to his car. Then, later in the day, in a social-media post, Shahid boasted of killing the deer by slitting its throat, and users of the online group quickly alerted the police.

Shahid’s was charged with not only killing the deer illegally, but also causing it unnecessary suffering. However, his sentence (three months for poaching and four months for unnecessary suffering) has been suspended for two years, during which he must complete 200 hours of unpaid labor.

Head of Campaigns for World Animal Protection UK Alyx Elliott commented that this particular crime demonstrated the “diversity of urban wildlife crime” as well as the “shocking cruelty involved in the poaching of wild animals,” and hoped that the “conviction will act as a deterrent” to potential offenders.