No matter where you stand on deer culls, it is clear that deer should not be injured and left to die a slow painful death when an amateur opportunist shoots them. This is, however, exactly what is happening in the Scottish Highlands right now, thanks to an ill-advised bounty on deer carcasses.

Without the experience or motivation to shoot and swiftly kill the right animals, freelance hunters after a quick profit or a quick thrill are busy killing and injuring deer indiscriminately.

The bounty does not even have the intended effect. Although the amateur hunters are injuring more deer, they are killing far fewer than their professional predecessors. Plus, many fawns are being left orphaned when hunters shoot their mothers. Even professional deer stalkers in the area are condemning the bounty.

Tell Scottish Natural Heritage not to turn over deer culling to hopeless wannabe hunters. The results are cruel and useless.

We the undersigned are asking you to put an immediate end to bounties on deer. This encourages malpractice, with freelance stalkers motivated to kill as many deer as possible rather than in a responsible manner. The result is animals injured and young deer orphaned, leaving the animals to die slow and painful deaths.

Deer culling should be done through the employment of professional stalkers on a salaried basis, not through a bounty given to freelancers. The results are not only cruel; they also don't work. Fewer deer have actually been killed since the bounty was introduced.

The bounty is also putting professional deer stalkers, who could do the job properly, out of work. It appears that the benefits are minimal and the drawbacks are serious. The bad publicity is also not doing anything for the tourist industry in the Highlands, where the iconic deer are a major attraction. Deer culling might be necessary but this sort of cruelty is not.

We ask that you cease the deer bounty program as a matter of urgency.