Moves by the State Government to free up licenced gun owners to shoot feral deer on private property were backed by Invasive Species Council this week.
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A council spokesman said deer were now in plague proportions throughout most of NSW, causing massive damage to the environment and even endangering the lives of motorists.
"Right now, unless you are the landowner, you need a special game hunting licence to shoot deer in NSW, but if you want to control other feral animals such as rabbits, foxes, feral goats and pigs all you need is a gun licence," the spokesman said
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"It's time to bring the control of feral deer into line with other damaging feral animals.
"We believe the NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall has the power to cut red tape for farmers by either removing the deer's 'game' status or using the Biosecurity Act to remove the requirement for a game licence. We would back moves by the minister to do this."
Feral deer already pose a threat to native plant species, and their capacity to expand is enormous.
Farmers NSW reports one fallow deer eats approximately one-and-a-half times as much as a dry, or non-breeding, sheep, and the council estimated their numbers soared by more than 60 per cent between 2009 and 2016.
A Department of Primary Industries scenario for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Australia puts the cost at about $50 billion over a decade.
Luckily, the ramifications of wild, migrating deer spreading foot and mouth disease though our sheep and cattle industries has never, and hopefully will never, be witnessed.
Speaking from overseas, the Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall said he was considering a number of measures to control the exploding feral deer population in NSW.
"One of those measures is removing the requirement for anyone who wants to control deer on private land, to obtain a game hunting licence in addition to having a firearm licence," Mr Marshall said.
"At the moment deer are treated uniquely, which has no doubt contributed to the big increase in their numbers.
"We're now seeing them in parts of the State where we've never seen them before."