THE carcasses of four deer were found when police and trading standards officers swooped on a building in Furness.

The operation was part of a crack-down on deer poaching in Cumbria which also involves the Food Standards Agency and members of the Deer Initiative.

The premises in the Ulverston area were searched and the headless bodies of two young and two older red deer were found.

PC John Baldwin, wildlife officer with Cumbria police, said wildlife crime has risen by 90 per cent in the last year, with more than half of reported incidents relating to deer poaching.

He said: “It has increased quite dramatically, probably with the down turn in the economy. There is a lot of money to be made out of it.”

Poachers can get up to £300 per carcass on the black market, and PC Baldwin said the carcasses found in Ulverston could have fetched around £600.

He also revealed that a herd of 40 deer in the Rusland Valley had been more than halved since October - an approximate profit of £6,000 to the poacher.

No arrests were made following the searches, said PC Baldwin, but three people attended Ulverston police station voluntarily for interview and there are further operations in the pipeline as a result of the investigation.

Anyone found guilty of the offence can face a fine of up to £5,000 and up to six months in prison.

PC Baldwin urged people to contact police on 0845 33 00 247 if they had an suspicions or information about poaching.

“Members of the public act as our eyes and ears and feed us vital pieces of information help us to build up enough intelligence to take action and help prevent criminals from committing further offences,” he said.

Eamonn Quinn, Cumbria Trading Standards lead officer on food safety, warned that illegal hunters also bypass all the normal health controls on the meat, including disease and parasite checks.

“This can result in diseased and unfit meat being subsequently offered to consumers,” he said.

An initiative bringing together the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Environment Agency, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Deer Initiative has been launched to tackle the problem.

The Poacher’s Moon initiative aims to help people’s understanding of poaching and improve the police response with a leaflet and poster drop to all 43 police forces across England and Wales.