Richmond Park stag put down after attacking man

Man in his 60s suffered chest injuries when a stag approached his picnic on Saturday

A man in his sixties was injured when he was attacked by a stag in Richmond Park.

Emergency services were called to the park just after 6.00 pm on Saturday (15 August) following reports of an attack. It has been reported that the incident happened near the Roehampton Gate Cafe where the man was having a picnic with a group.

The male deer has been put down after the decision that it was “deemed to be a danger to visitors”. The charity which maintains London’s royal parks said the stag was shot by one of their wildlife officers.

Police said the man’s injuries were assessed at hospital and were not described as life-threatening nor life-changing.

In a statement released by Royal Parks, they said they suspected that due to more visitors feeding the deer, this particular stag had learned to associate visitors with food.

“If visitors follow our advice and do not feed or interfere with the deer, it is highly unlikely that they will exhibit this type of behaviour.”

A spokeswoman explained that feeding the deer causes them to lose their natural wariness of people, which makes them brave enough to approach, and in this case attack.

Their advice is that the public keep at least 50 metres (165 ft) away from the wild animals.

As well as putting visitors in danger, the act of feeding the deer is illegal in Richmond Park. Despite this, recently many videos have peen posted online of visitors encouraging their children to feed and pet them.

In response, Paul Richards, the manager of the Royal Parks said last month:

“This deeply irresponsible and highly dangerous behaviour will cause the deer stress and create a serious risk of a tragic accident resulting in life-changing injuries or, in the worst case, a fatal incident.”