No pictures, please

In a world dominated by social media, photos of quarry are stripped of context and used against us — it’s time to wise up, says Gethin Jones

- Gethin Jones

On 11 May, a media storm flared following the publication of photographs showing what was claimed to be a group of Scandinavian stalkers posing with muntjac deer they had shot in the grounds of Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, a property managed by English Heritage. The images were published by a group called Bedfordshire Against Trophy Hunting (BATH), which describes itself as “a group formed in opposition to the unethical and cruel hunting of animals for ‘sport’, in particular, the trophy hunting of the iconic deer at Woburn Abbey”. The photos were subsequently posted by wildlife campaigner Dominic Dyer on Twitter and his 30,000-odd followers did the rest.

Mr. Dyer branded the photos an exposé of an international trophy hunting racket. Like a rabbit, or possibly a muntjac, dazzled by headlights, English Heritage was caught in the crossfire of the resulting social media furor, which prompted its spokesman to tweet: “We would never permit trophy hunting, and we don’t allow hunting for sport at any of the historic sites in our care... we have launched a full investigation.”

The head of historic properties east at English Heritage, Emma FernandesLopes, commented on BBC Three Counties Radio that “though [English Heritage] employed a gamekeeping (sic) company to keep their [muntjac] numbers limited, it would never permit hunting for sport on any of its sites”.