Deer hunter tells Queensland Government shooters can help control feral deer numbers Deer Hunter Keith Staines at a property near Raceview. VETERAN deer hunter Keith Staines has a message for the Queensland Government: "I'm here to help." Mr Staines, 67, has spent half a century hunting the animal and says the state's sharpest shooters can play a bigger role in managing numbers of feral deer. "We are not the answer, we are part of the solution," Mr Staines, a founding member of the Queensland branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, said. The Courier-Mail revealed on Saturday about 30,000 feral deer were causing havoc in Queensland with hunters saying Bambi syndrome was an issue in dealing with the problem. Mr Staines said it was wrong to think of deer as a pet and people needed to recognise numbers had to be controlled. "We are hamstrung by a lot of people that love them and a lot of people that hate them," he said. They (the authorities) will never control the numbers the way they are at the moment unless they get better acceptance from the public and the right people to do it. They will always have a problem. I believe the authorities have got to give blokes that have proven they are capable the right equipment to be able to manage the number of animals safely. Conservation and Wildlife Management Qld, a division of SSAA, conducts "pest animal management activities" on rural properties owned by the State Government and private individuals. Members of the group, including Mr Staines, do not receive a wage for their work but are given donations, for fuel, for example. To join, a hunter must prove he is a skilled marksman, hitting a target no bigger than a fist from 100 metres away. "We believe in 12 months we will be in 50-odd areas around the state," Mr Staines told The Courier-Mail from a 1,010 hectare shooting range, near Raceview, south of Ipswich, as cracks of rifle fire regularly echoed across the valley. We are only assisting the Government, we are not taking the place of their rangers. We are a contractor for whoever wants our expertise to help with their culling or management program. Mr Staines said he had started shooting deer as a "trophy hunter," but realised hunters should play a role in managing numbers. Hunting deer on private land is legal in Queensland and the State Government controls numbers by shooting, trapping and exclusion fencing, but says it needs landowner support to be effective.