THE National Trust (NT) this week refused to answer specific questions after it was alleged to have so far culled 400 deer on Exmoor this winter, about 10 per cent of the national park’s estimated herd.

The claim was made by Exmoor farmer John Balman, who said the deer had been shot by stalkers hired by the trust and included ‘many good stags, babies, and healthy hinds’.

Mr Balman, who runs a social media site dedicated to Exmoor, spoke after seeing mixed public reactions to traditional Boxing Day hunt meets.

He said the trust banned hunting on its land ‘to satisfy the anti members’ and the result was disease spreading in deer herds from NT estates at Holnicote, Countisbury, and Arlington.

Mr Balman said: “This has only occurred as hounds would have dispersed them to other areas, thus keeping them thinner on the ground.

“While chasing them, they would have pressured poorly ones to split off and be taken out by trained marksmen, keeping a healthy herd.

“I have been told they have shot 400 so far this winter, the only crime the deer made was to take refuge in NT properties.

“The contract has been given to stalkers who have undertaken to not only profit from their NT payments, but advertised stalking on Exmoor.

“Random guns just turning up in our area.

“Where the scientific research continues on Exmoor, there are healthy deer populations.

“Do the public want to see mass slaughter on this scale?”

Mr Balman said the trust was also taking £1,000 per acre Government payments over 30 years for rewilding land which then resulted in deer being fenced out.

He said: “Do the maths. They try to smokescreen it as ‘good for wildlife’.”

The claims sparked a large and mostly NT-hostile reaction from social media followers, who spoke of how Lady Chichester bequeathed the trust her Arlington estate when she died in 1949 for deer to be preserved and not fenced out.

Exmoor is estimated to have a population of about 4,000 deer, the largest in England, a number which has risen rapidly in the past few years.

Across the UK, deer numbers have been put at a thousand-year record of two million – more than when William the Conqueror invaded.

The Free Press put 10 specific questions to the National Trust about the shooting of Exmoor deer and the spread of disease, but it refused to answer any of them.

Instead, a National Trust statement was provided which read: “The management of wildlife is sometimes required to help us protect and care for our places, support rare and vulnerable species, and meet legal obligations.

“The welfare of any animals involved is at the forefront of our minds whenever such action is considered.

“We follow international principles for ethical wildlife control.

“We only use lethal control as a last resort and prioritise methods that do the least harm to the fewest number of animals possible.

“We follow best practice methods to ensure any actions taken are legal, humane, and evidence based.”