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.
“Tree rats are just as bad. I kill everyone I can get my sites on.”
Uhhhh - you site ‘em with Google, Dogpile, or - - -.
Sorry about you lightning problems. I ran a cleanup program on my computer and it dumped the program that allows me to log on. Wound up losing everything and having to reinstall Windows. Real bummer!
Just wait till a type of “mad-cow” hits the deer herd, Then ALL of them have to be destroyed! Up here in S.E. Mi. we have to worry about bovine tb hitting the deer herds, then the same result will have to happen. southere Mi. does not allow rifle hunting, only shotgun or bow.
There is a bow season but these pockets are private properties and theres no way people are going to appreciate a hunter tracking a wounded deer thru their subdivisions and back yards ..........
FWIW, all the hunters I know will usually score at least 3 dear a season. Even more if they have access to friends' tags......
Yep, same here, unless the freezer is too full with moose.
They won’t let him distribute the meat.
Do you understand how much damage a herd of deer can do to a farm?
Your reasoning is like complaining about the anti-theft sensors at stores, reasoning that “a shopkeeper that can’t afford a little shoplifting was just about too broke to be in business”.
We’re not talking “a few deer”, we’re talking a LOT, as in 40 were just the ones he actually managed to shoot.
What works on apples may not work on cotton. Think about it.
It's already being hit with "chronic wasting disease", which I imagine will ultimately need the same kind of treatment.
That is what I was thinking about....
Then the envirowacko’s will blame us [the consertives] about those “wonderful” deer getting sick from our stuff, and this would not have happened if we had just elected algore.
Farmers don’t get crop damage permits in Tennessee? You can hunt deer year round with those in Maryland.
If he had eaten the deer...problem solved.
Are they making him leave them unburied? If so, then what the hell?
Exactly.
It’s illegal for him (or anyone else) to eat them.
To do that, he’d need a hunting license, and they’re out of season and too numerous.
They’re afraid someone might abuse the “farmers can shoot them as pests” allowance as an excuse to fill freezers, so they let the farmers kill deer as pests to stop the damage, but not allow consumption thereof.
But no - some guy takes out a herd that is wrecking his crops, obeys the law in doing so, and gets chewed out for “slaughtering them and letting them rot” ... it’s not his fault, people! It’s the lawmakers that are compelling the waste thereof.
Have I ever told you that you are a nut job?
If not, consider yourself told.
What a stupid law.
Yeah, I think you did. Now kindly get off my roof.
I'm am so sorry that I did not get a picture of that. You and coolbreeze on the roof would have been a classic pic. Oh well.
Now, I have 4 days of pings I need to catch up with.
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