How to: Safely dispose of deer gralloch

If the deer has any signs of being unhealthy, the gralloch must be incinerated.

By NGO

Wednesday, 07 December 2011

When stalking, always carry a decent spade in your vehicle so you can bury a deer gralloch at or near the scene of the kill.

Game meat hygiene requires that a beast is gralloched as soon after killing as possible but it could also be unhygienic or impractical to transport the gralloch and the carcass away from the site in the same vehicle.

So burial on the spot is a good option.

- The Animal By- Products Regulations allow for the gralloch of a healthy wild animal to be buried beyond the reach of carnivorous animals but other legislation imposes additional conditions.

The gralloch should be buried at least 1m deep and not within 250m of a borehole, nor 30m of a watercourse or spring or 10m of a field drain.

- If there is any indication that the deer was not healthy at the time of killing, the gralloch may not be buried in this way.

If the farm does not have an approved incinerator, it must be collected by an approved contractor for rendering or incineration elsewhere.

- These laws permitting burial are, however, somewhat fragile.

Other statutes cast doubt on the practice, but the Environment Agency has said that burial as above will not be prosecuted. Make sure you do the job properly, however, or this could change.