Posted on 07/28/2007 5:04:07 PM PDT by Sybeck1
Whispers started with the first few gunshots.
Neighborhood rumors had it that a cotton farmer who leases land from the Chickasaw Basin Authority near the Wolf River was shooting deer on the property.
So when residents discovered nearly 40 of the animals had been killed and left to rot in the surrounding woods, they reacted with horror.
"I don't like to see (deer) slaughtered, and that's what happened down there in these cotton fields," said Brenda Flanagan, a nearby resident. "To me it's inhumane. ... What's gone is gone, and I would hate to see that ever happen again."
Angry neighbors also cited safety concerns.
"Our first concern was the brutality of killing those animals," said Arthur Wolff, who owns property on Bethany Road, a shady street that dead ends into the sprawling cotton farm. "Then there was the safety issue of shooting deer so close to people's homes."
Wolff, along with other angry residents, called officials from the Chickasaw Basin Authority (CBA), a state agency dealing with flood-control and drainage in a three-county area. The CBA owns a 600-acre patch of land near Collierville's annexation reserve in unincorporated Shelby County.
It turns out the farmer had been given permission by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) to kill deer that were destroying his crops.
But as a result of the community's response, CBA's chairman, Charles Perkins, said they became aware of the safety issues and pulled the permit until further notice.
"We just thought it was a health concern and a safety concern because of the populated area being so close in proximity," Perkins said. "We put a stop to it."
Farmer David Ciarloni, who leases the 200 acres, is not happy about the decision, but he's going to wait to see what can be negotiated with the CBA.
He said the deer population has escalated in recent years, wreaking havoc on his cotton crop.
"It's not going to stop, and it will make this farm impossible to farm in the future," he said.
Although Ciarloni won't know the extent of damage until harvest time, he's estimated 30 percent to 50 percent crop damage. "It's an astronomical increase from last year."
Ciarloni grew frustrated with the deer problem a few months ago and contacted his landlord, the CBA, for a permit to kill the deer.
Ted Fox, the county's public works director who doubles as the CBA's executive director, said he sent a county employee out to examine the damage.
The employee corroborated Ciarloni's story -- that deer had eaten away at about 30 percent of the crop. Fox contacted the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which issues hunting permits.
Gary Cook, TWRA's regional manager in West Tennessee, said state legislation allows farmers to receive hunting permits if they can prove significant crop loss. Called a "depredation permit," this license allows farmers to kill wildlife such as birds or deer that are causing damage to public or private property.
"It happens all over Tennessee on a regular basis," Cook said. "This is not something rare or unusual."
Each year, TWRA issues anywhere from about three to 10 permits to landowners in Shelby County. Last year, it issued 11.
A permit was issued to the CBA after TWRA officers sent to Ciarloni's farm noted significant crop loss and 81 deer.
Ronnie Shannon of TWRA said that contrary to popular belief, deer have been known to eat newer strains of cotton, called "Roundup Ready" cotton that has a salty taste. And because there's limited hunting in the county, the deer population has grown in recent years.
TWRA officials relayed this information to the CBA board, which voted unanimously to thin the herd during a two-week period.
Perkins, CBA's chairman, said the TWRA warden showed up to the meeting in uniform and with his rifle, leading him to assume that the officer -- not Ciarloni -- would be handling the problem.
"We thought the TWRA was going to handle the eradication," Perkins said. "We thought they were going to be onsite to supervise or do it themselves."
He was surprised to discover Ciarloni had taken a shotgun and killed the animals himself.
Perkins also discovered their bodies had been dragged off the cotton fields and into nearby wooded areas to rot.
"That concerned us because of the scavengers, the possibility of the coyotes moving into that area, the buzzards and the smell," Perkins said. "It was a general health concern."
Fox called Ciarloni and put a hold on the permit. The CBA held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue.
During that session, the CBA heard testimony from Wolff and other concerned residents, who complained of safety and health risks for the surrounding residents.
Perkins said the license will be pulled until further notice, but something will have to be done eventually to deal with the deer population.
And of the system chosen to hunt the deer, he said residents probably won't be happy about it.
"I personally am leaning toward a limited hunting situation although I suspect neighbors won't like that," he said. "This is a serious problem in Shelby County."
-- Alex Doniach: 529-5231
Copyright 2007, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
like a 7.62x39mm ?
Alex Doniach or his/her editor need to attend an English as a second language class.
Strycnine works just fine as long as they have enough water to drink.
If it’s like Texas, the farmer can shoot the deer if they are harming his crops, but if he touches them , it is considered “taking” and he is then subject to fines.
Well, yes, that’s what I would have done, too.
I don’t get it. What’s wrong with the word “bodies”?
I didn't know that. Here in Alaska moose road kills have to be turned in to designated charities.
Friend I live on a farm, there are deer in the back field everyday. I hunt and eat deer ever year, I just choose not to engage in wanton slaughter as this man does.
And therein lies the rub -
There are legitimate purposes for depredation permits. Some states are pretty tight with them, requiring convincing evidence of real crop damage to issue them, while other states practically give them out for the asking without verification of other efforts to control the offending critters.
My own personal opinion on the subject - every reasonable effort should be taken prior to just the wholesale slaughter of the animals.
1 - what methods were used to dissuade the deer from damaging crops (there are mixtures that can be applied to crops to make them distasteful to deer). There are mechanical means of preventing deer damage with varying degrees of effectiveness.
2 - Does the farmer allow any legal hunting on his property? My opinion - this should be one of the first lines of defense to keep the population manageable.
3 - What are the hunting regulations in the area? If the regulations are not allowing the culling of enough of the herd to keep them in check - then the regs need changing.
4 - Did the regulatory body actually verify the damage?
And I have one additional puzzle - with all the crops in the same area (soy beans, rice, corn, milo, and other crops, it seems a bit odd that deer would choose the cotton to be their target crop. Not quite normal behavior.
and lest we forget - there are programs to feed needy families with deer taken by hunters. If a farmer has a large herd and feels that he needs to just kill 40 of them - there should have been some sort of arrangement to have them processed (no cost to the hunter or farmer) for this purpose.
Friend I live on a farm, there are deer in the back field everyday. I hunt and eat deer ever year, I just choose not to engage in wanton slaughter as this man does.
You know I was walking through the house and then it came to me, this was the first time I had ever heard that a deer would eat cotton. I looked it up, HREF=http://www.myplainview.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18589336&BRD=517&PAG=461&dept_id=473182&rfi=6>myplanview this game warden says they will not eat cotton.
That would be one big deadfall for a bambi. I like your thinking, though.
It has to work, I read it in “My side of the mountain”!
Which is probably about as close I’ll ever get to actually hunting a deer...
That’s what I would have thought you’d do...we conservatives tend to do what is right not only for ourselves but to help others in the process.
Really, I know you are poking fun of my off-topic posts and if I was on the other end, I would to.
But hand to God this is the first time this is ever happened to me, I needed a not-too-busy thread to see if my posts were going OUT, and who knows, deer folks are as likely as anyone to have suffered a lightening strike.
Heh. ;)
So far we’ve got a list. I’m thinking the homeowner’s people might think I’m lying.
As for deer, I think people should be able to hunt them when needed, they should eat what they kill and I shall live the rest of my life without ever tasting deer meat again because I didn’t like it the first times.
I am a gardener so know my fondness for deer is not so great.
It really is a sickness I have to tickle ones goat, sorry you were at the end of it. Did you get your computer going.
“If we don’t thin, other predators will move in to do the job, then libs will be up in arms about why are the predators here? Maybe they could then a few libs too(sarc)?”
Thinning Libs, (Libroids, Libtards, ad nauseam) isn’t yet legal. But, have you considered the future advantages of banning the hunting of Liberals in favor of a policy of doubling their taxes and removing their franchise?
After all, those who vote the Treason Ticket shouldn’t be voting because they want to destroy the Constitution.
GG
Well I got a Rube Goldberg computer setup here anyways. But no, the big CPU, which is also my server, simply would not boot up. The green light indicated it was spinning but....
I suppose if I had a boot up disk, which I don’t, I could get it to work. But I figure, why bother? I do believe the data on that hard drive can be saved but, truth be told, the world won’t come to an end if it can’t.
My kitchen computer, which is where I’m typing from now, works just fine. IT was off during the big lightning boom whereas the other was on. Don’t know if it matters because you can take what I know about lightning strikes and shove it up the behind of a flea.
We have four TV’s in the house but the two that burnt out were the ones NOT hooked up to Comcast’s latest and greatest thing that let’s you order pay-for-view from your home, yada, yada. THOSE two TV’s, and the really expensive ones, are fine. The two that fried were just little things but hey, they died, may they rest in peace.
The family room fan, I’m not making this up, will NOT turn off. Husband jury rigged the thing but go to hell, we have no light and the fan does need to be fixed, somehow, someway.
The garage door is the real puzzler. Who’d have thunk? But darn if it doesn’t work. Husband says circuit board burned out. As chance would have it, the chain on that thing broke about three months ago and we had to have it fixed. When they fixed it they also modified it so you could open it by hand. This is my first home even with a garage much less a garage auto door and I’d never even gave a thought what happens when you can’t open it manually.
But we were able, this time, to open the garage so my Jeep wasn’t trapped.
Tomorrow I shall be dealing with the homeowner’s. I have owned four houses over an almost 40 year period. This is the FIRST time I have filed a claim.
I shall win.
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