GAMEKEEPERS have repeated their warning against the extension of the deer season – and highlighted photographs of out-of-season culling as evidence of the welfare issues involved. The photos, taken by a local on Skye, emerged on social media last week, showing dead hinds lying inside a new forestry enclosure near Dunvegan, including one with a very large unborn calf lying alongside. Deer managers can use a General Authorisation to cull deer inside enclosed woodland up to April 1, but the Scottish Gamekeepers Association said that the hind in the picture appears to have been shot many weeks after that cut-off date. NatureScot, the body that signs off deer authorisations, confirmed on Thursday afternoon that it had not sanctioned any special permissions for the Dunvegan fenced enclosure.