Maybe You Need To Question Why You Believe It's Any Of Your Business?

Fin Robertson, of animal welfare group OneKind, said: ‘The danger is he is a well-known personality.

‘If he’s seen to be glorifying and revelling in the death of an animal it’s going to send out a terrible message. He’s not a professional hunter and there is obviously a great risk the animal is going to suffer a painful death. Maybe he needs to question why he needs to play the role of a macho hunter.’

Yes, it's the bunny-huggers in OUTRAGE! mode over the news that property show frontman Phil Spencer has bagged a deer. And now the professional whingers are frantically gazumping each other to secure the headlines:

Louise Robertson, spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports, claimed Spencer’s fans would be ‘genuinely upset’ by his actions.

She said: ‘I am shocked to see Phil Spencer in this role of bloodthirsty killer.

‘To allow a celebrity shooter to kill a deer purely for the entertainment of others is appalling.’

I rather doubt when Louise looks to move house she questions what her estate agent does on his day off, do you? And as a fan of Channel; 4's property-porn series, I have to say I don't give a stuff. He hunted it within the guidelines, and ate it afterwards. What's not to like?

And Elisa Allen, spokesman for Peta – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – said:

‘Anyone who can describe a blood sport as a “passion” and boast of a long-held ambition to stalk and kill defenceless animals should undergo a psychiatric evaluation to see if his or her mirror neuron, the one that allows a person to experience empathy, is underdeveloped.

‘It takes a small person to enjoy traumatising, hurting, and killing animals who are minding their own business, and perhaps Spencer does it in order to feel important or because of some other inadequacy.’

Interesting psychoanalysis there, doctor. While you're at it, can you perhaps tell us why PETA kills so many animals? And doesn't even have the guts not to lie about it?

And I have to say it's refreshing to see a celebrity in the crosshairs not panic and run:

But Spencer, who lives in Wandsworth, South-West London, robustly defended the shooting, saying: ‘I’ve been involved in different types of fieldsports practically since I could walk. It’s something I’m very comfortable about. It’s part of me – it’s my complete passion.’

So much for his 'lack of skill'. Perhaps the critics should have done their homework, maybe got a surveyor in to check their desirable purchase wasn't full of dry rot?

He added: ‘My dad is a farmer and I was brought up with country ways of life firmly in my heart. The deer culling operation I took part in was both serious and necessary – the farmer had had to completely abandon his harvest on two ten-acre fields of corn for two consecutive years because deer wrecked those fields, and he had already lost over £40,000.

‘I was asked if I wanted to help and taken out by an experienced deer hunter he employs on the farm. Around 100,000 deer are culled in the UK each year, not purely related to crop protection, but this is an absolutely necessary precaution against over-population. I took this particular animal home and it has since fed around 35 people.’

Spencer went on: ‘I’m sorry if killing such a beautiful animal is difficult for some people to stomach, but I would also hope that anyone who enjoys eating any type of meat stops to appreciate that their chicken, sheep, cow, pig etc also had to die in order to end up on their dinner plate – and almost certainly had a less fulfilling life than this wild fallow buck did.’

Good for you, Phil.