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How to Solve America’s Wild Deer Problem? Eat Them
WSJ ^ | 9 July 2021 | Frank Hyman

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 ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: bambi
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To: Wuli
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.

They live nearby, close to the food source. I grew up in NJ and there were no deer within 10 miles of home. My mom is still there. The neighborhood is infested with them and they are fearless. Mom goes into the yard with a broom to shoo them away.

21 posted on 07/10/2021 9:52:44 AM PDT by IndispensableDestiny
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Sister in law lives in N.W. New Jersey.
Every night she has too many deer and bear most nights yet she can not take one for nutrition.
NOt in Jersey even though there are too many.
They are every where there.


22 posted on 07/10/2021 9:55:22 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (You Go Donald.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
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...

A deer jumping eleven feet? Now that I'd like to see.

Any deer that can jump that high are welcome to snack on my day lilies and Rhododendrons.

23 posted on 07/10/2021 9:56:47 AM PDT by FreeReign
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To: Wuli

—”we had our first deer ever on our street early one recent morning.”

I take the dogs for a couple of mile run, most nights.

Passing through a nearby village the dog’s radar locked on to something? I’m watchful about stray dogs and skunks...

An overgrown wooded vacant lot and a nice eight-point was living in there!!!
Probably well fed on local gardens, but lonely in the rutting season.

We used to see him a few times each week.


24 posted on 07/10/2021 9:58:55 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

As opposed to tamed or domesticated deer?

*wild deer* is more than a bit redundant.


25 posted on 07/10/2021 10:02:35 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith……)
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To: TexasGator

—“The U.S. is the only nation I know of where you can’t serve wild game.”

I had always heard that line.

Wisconsinites are similar to the Chinese.
They will eat anything with legs but the table.

They would know.
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/permits/wildGameServingPermit.html


26 posted on 07/10/2021 10:05:11 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

The neighborhood Karens here in Montgomery county Maryland feed the local deer. Corn, other grain, and they supplement their diet with my figs (shoots, leaves), pomegranate, tomato plants, peppers (not the Habaneros), and pretty much everything around.

I have counted over 20 deer in a single herd in the 16 acres of county watershed parkland behind my house, often 2 or 3 less during bow season as I harvest what I can.

As I get older it’s harder to climb trees or haul 100+ lb carcasses out of the woods. A single large doe can yield over 60 lbs of meat - Knott’s butcher up in Mt. Airy does wonders with beef tallow making burger and the market in Highland makes the best breakfast sausage.

Same neighbors feel the effing feral cats - even the local chinese restaurants won’t take ‘em off my hands so I leave ‘em for the vultures - which won’t eat them for some reason.

Tending a herd in TN on my retirement property, depredation permits, locals hunt the property for me until I get down there. Have a couple spots sited for feed stations, feed plots I’ve been seeding in a pasture. Sure they’ll be eating my apples, figs, etc., I’ll be responding in kind.

But talk to the locals here in MD about hunting and eating the deer and you get the stinkeye pronto.


27 posted on 07/10/2021 10:07:17 AM PDT by normbal (normbal. somewhere in socialist occupied America)
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To: normbal
But talk to the locals here in MD about hunting and eating the deer and you get the stinkeye pronto.

I blame Disney.

28 posted on 07/10/2021 10:09:01 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
On it! Here are a buck and two does I'm 'raising' for future consumption:


29 posted on 07/10/2021 10:11:36 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: DUMBGRUNT

The obvious answer is obvious.

We obviously need to start up a government re-education encampment where deer can be re-trained and thought corrected to fill the role of currently endangered species.

That way, we eliminate deer overpopulation and can remove some species from the endangered list.

Semper Smart!


30 posted on 07/10/2021 10:12:00 AM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Artemis Webb

Actually it’s my wife. I’ve never hit one or had one run into me. I’ve told her she’s a deer magnet.


31 posted on 07/10/2021 10:14:30 AM PDT by Pollard
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To: Pollard

Sounds like Missouri needs to make F150s a legal hunting weapon.


32 posted on 07/10/2021 10:21:48 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Minnesota Twin Cities has a real deer problem made worse by a hunting season that’s too short. 1.5 weeks. Collisions, property damage, habitat damage. The wokesters in Minnecraponus are of course anti hunting.


33 posted on 07/10/2021 10:23:32 AM PDT by Fred Hayek (Antifa=BLM=RevCom=CPUSA = CCP=Democratic Party )
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To: Fred Hayek

“As opposed to tamed or domesticated deer?

*wild deer* is more than a bit redundant.”

An old family friend runs one such farm in Montrose, IL. People from out of town pay large sums of money to bag one every once in a while.


34 posted on 07/10/2021 10:51:04 AM PDT by Nabron
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Yes, we need to reform that law. I’ve eaten wild game including venison at restaurants in Europe. It was tasty.

They’ve become so numerous they are a pest. They are also tasty. The solution is staring us in the face.


35 posted on 07/10/2021 11:03:40 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Pollard

B. F. Goodrich T/A KO2 LT Class C are not annoyingly noisy—but the deer really hear them and avoid the vehicle. Gives a much better result than “deer whistles.” Testimonial from wife’s driving experience with deer over a decade of use. No deer crash events whatsoever. They run away.

Not a mud tread tire as these do not clear gumbo properly—good to withstand the sharp broken shale backroads of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. Also the “three peaks” give excellent grip on the occasional snow.


36 posted on 07/10/2021 11:05:49 AM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: IndispensableDestiny; Wuli

We see deer everywhere in our SJ suburb, especially at night. Herds even graze on the side of the road at night.


37 posted on 07/10/2021 11:15:49 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
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To: Ozark Tom
I put a set of these on it.

Kelly Safari TSR LT tires which do make a little noise but not too much. They're also holding up very well to the gravel but they also hold quite a bit of gravel. You're probably on to something because she did drive it with these tires for quite a few months. No deer hits. When it snowed, I would usually drive her in and pick her up. Florida girl doesn't do snow very well. The tires do though. She's driving a Ford Focus now which scares me a little. Hit a big buck square on and he might come through the windshield. Then again, the windshield slants back so much, it might just slide up over on to the roof and off the back. We got it for these rising gas prices. I started looking for a small car soon after the biden coronation. When the bucks go into rut and the deer start moving, I'll put her back in the truck.

38 posted on 07/10/2021 11:29:51 AM PDT by Pollard
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To: FlipWilson

The fricking deer are everywhere in our black hills of SD town.

If the deer are here so are the mountain lions.


39 posted on 07/10/2021 11:49:18 AM PDT by South Dakota (Patriotism is the new terrorism )
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Makes too much sense. That is why PETA and the VEGANS will never let it happen.


40 posted on 07/10/2021 12:02:47 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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