Posted on 07/10/2021 8:49:44 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Before Europeans came to America, there were an estimated 30 million wild deer in what is now the eastern U.S. By 1900 that figure had fallen by 99% due to unrestricted hunting, and conservationists made it their mission to protect deer from extinction. They might have succeeded too well. Today the wild deer population has rebounded to precolonization levels, becoming a nuisance to suburban homeowners who find deer invading their yards and gardens.
Despite an estimated 1.5 million car collisions with deer in the U.S. each year, the numbers of deer grazing and razing backyards continues to rise. With our pampered gardens for their dining rooms, deer find richer food
Hiring professionals to cull deer populations is an expensive solution, costing around $300 per deer.
Some gardeners manage to dial down deer damage by planting kitchen herbs and medicinal plants with flavors too strong for a deer’s palate.
A fence is a more reliable deterrent. Some deer can jump as high as 11 feet, but a 7-foot-high fence is tall enough...
causing traffic collisions that kill about 200 people and injure 30,000 every year.
If you’ve ever eaten boar in Italy, moose in Sweden or kangaroo in Australia, you’ve enjoyed the legal harvest of native wild animals by private hunters who comply with regulations based on safety and conservation.
In my hometown of Durham, N.C., restaurant owner Gray Brooks wishes that he could provide diners with wild deer meat. Instead, he uses farmed venison from New Zealand; being grass-fed, he says, “it has a better flavor profile” than grain-fed deer from farms in the Midwest. Feeding grain also makes farmed American venison more expensive, despite the shorter shipping distance. As Mr. Brooks says, “The U.S. is the only nation I know of where you can’t serve wild game.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They are delicious. There is a bunch of them and a lot of hungry people.
They re-introduced the Gray Wolf in the Adirondack. Not shockingly, they multiplied and have been spreading South. Why? Because there are lots of deer to eat.
Eat them? Yes, but look out for what is eating them.
We are overrun with them in North Idaho around Coeur d’Alene. The town of Dalton Gardens north of CdA has a huge brouhaha going on about the deer. Half the people want the herd culled and managed and think the best way to do that is bow hunting. Half the people say “NO WAY!” you cannot hurt pretty little Bambi and her fawns. The town is peppered with “No hunting in Dalton Gardens” signs.
Here in Sun City, Georgetown, TX we have a formal deer trapping program, and of course a fair number of misinformed idiots who oppose it, including some who actively try to sabotage the traps.
We live in rural MO Ozarks and my wife works third shift. I bought an F150 that had been crashed in the right front. I banged out the fender pretty close to it's original shape. Two weeks later, a deer ran into the front right. I banged out the fender again. A month later a deer ran into the front right again. She ended up sliding in the snow and hitting a tree so we took it off the road and got a Chevy truck. Two weeks later, a deer slammed into the right front corner. We now have a Ford Focus and right after we got it, I grabbed a pair of noise makers that are supposed to alert a deer. Within a month, a deer slammed into the driver's door. When I worked in Springfield, a deer totaled an F150 work truck of theirs. A month later, one totaled a co-worker's Caddy. Yeah, we have some deer out here.
Deer. It’s what’s for dinner.
I used too harvest 7 deer a year which was to max allowed in Oklahoma for archery, muzzle loading, and gun seasons. We had several freezers to keep the meat as I also hunted elk and pronghorn. We never ate beef. My wife liked to prepare the meat.
She passed away a couple years ago and not being much of a cook I quit hunting for meat. Mostly eat TV dinners.
My college town allows bow-hunting for deer on city-owned properties. My backyard butts up to one of them. I have a ladder stand a hundred feet from my back door. I have a freezer full of venison I took from it. Pretty cool.
After more than 20 years in my suburban NJ location, we had our first deer ever on our street early one recent morning. The closest area I know of where there are enough woods is several miles away and would have required first passing through many neighborhoods to get to ours.
Lots of black tail deer around our place, south Puget Sound boonies. Three bucks in velvet were feeding near the house yesterday. It’s a tough area to hunt them in the fall being so brushy.
SHTF and they are gone in two weeks.
“As Mr. Brooks says, “The U.S. is the only nation I know of where you can’t serve wild game.””
The US allows the serving of wild game.
—”Yeah, we have some deer out here.”
A coworker that lived about 50 miles into the Illinois cornfields.
His choice was the Illinois $$$ TOLLROAD that is mostly fenced off and fast or driving a bit slower through the cornfields.
He was always on the lookout for mechanically sound larger cars with not so much of a body.
He liked to keep a backup ride for deer season.
—”We are overrun with them in North Idaho around Coeur d’Alene.”
They come and go here in DuPage County.
Back when DuPage was a bastion of conservativism, they had major political fights about culling the local deer.
One morning walking my dogs in the local Forest Preserve, bits of nylon fishnet, fur, and blood trails everywhere.
Guessing they drive them into the netting and use a captive bolt gun?
Brother you are a deer magnet! I live in Springfield. I drive all over Christian County five days a week. I’ve never hit (or been hit by) a deer. I chalk it up to dumb luck rather than skill.
I have not been out since CWD.
A friend did give me a few handouts over the years.
Condolences for your losses...
—”Pretty cool.”
That is very cool!
A similar program was suggested here in DuPage, years back.
Never approved, the antis are insane and will stop at nothing.
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