"Where can I get me a huntin' license?"
Posted on 03/19/2005 8:29:04 PM PST by neverdem
Forgive us if you are among the millions of gardeners, farmers, bird-watchers, drivers, fence builders, claims adjusters, body-shop operators, roadkill scrapers, 911 dispatchers, physical therapists and chiropractors who know this already.
White-tailed deer are a plague.
In their overwhelming abundance, they are prime examples of an ecosystem badly out of balance. They denude forests, making life impossible for vulnerable native plants and birds while allowing invasive species to thrive. While deer profoundly vex suburban gardeners, that annoyance pales next to the lethal danger they pose to drivers.
Now, even bird lovers want the deer subdued. The New Jersey Audubon Society, in a report last week, urged the consideration of lethal means to solve the problem, arguing that fencing, contraception and other gentle tactics have proved largely ineffective. The group wants the government to rethink conservation policies it says are intended to maximize herds for hunters, and to consider - especially in the suburbs, where hunting is too dangerous - bringing in sharpshooters.
It may sound harsh, even strange coming from an organization whose mission is to foster "environmental awareness and a conservation ethic." But the group - which does not speak for the National Audubon Society - has it exactly right.
Deer are simply heeding the biological imperative to go forth and multiply. With no natural predators, and the suburbs a year-round salad bar, they have slipped out of their ecological niche - and it's our fault, not theirs. The deer did not ask human beings to create the kind of predator-free suburban landscapes in which they now thrive. But the mountain lion, gray wolf and bobcat are not about to return, and the houses and highways are staying put. People, therefore, must own up to their place in a compromised food chain, and assume the responsibility for managing it well.
Unfortunately, deer contradict our innate assumption that only ugly creatures can be vermin. As the recent release of the "Bambi" DVD reminds us, they seem miscast as villains. But wise conservation means looking at the environment as a whole - from the smallest wildflower on forest floor to the biggest brown-eyed herbivore. The whole system - not just the prettiest mammals - needs protection.
Uh oh.
Mine was a lot bigger than that one...more like the Ridgeback's size, really.
I reckon he wasn't such a baby after all....:))
[and that little thing is *so* cute!]
"Not a cute dear."
That was no accident. It's obvious that dear committed suicide.
We frequently go the computer swap meets at Mont. Co. fairgrounds.
Out on a six-lane highway, I see deer carcasses.
All I could ever think was "Where in God's name are deer living *here*?"....:))
I just saw Ron White on Comedy Central, and he was talking about huntning. I share his views on it... We don't hunt...
It's not because I'm against hunting... Going out early in the morning, while it's freezing cold, and climbing a tree, and waiting for hours... I just don't want to do that, while I could be sleeping in a nice, warm, comfortable bed. I have no trouble eating something that's been bludgeoned to death by someone else! lol
However, he did seem to have the answer for everyone who's ever shot at a deer and missed: Just slow your bullet down to 55MPH, put a set of headlights on it, and give it a horn... The deer will jump right in front of that bullet!
Mark
There's a place just north of Kansas City, between Liberty and Excelcior Springs, where someone's raising some sort of antlered critters... I'm not sure what they are. I think that they're too small for elk or caribou, so they may be reindeer. Definately NOT your typical deer, like Whitetail or Mule Deer.
Mark
You can lead a deer to a condom, but you can't make him use it.
Heck, you can't get high school students to use condoms, and they're almost as smart as deer are! Besides, to use condoms, deer would need opposable thumbs...
Seriously, I saw an interview with a MO wildlife conservation officer, talking about a relocation program that they tried... First off, farmers in rural MO aren't too crazy about having "city deer" dropped off in their neck of the woods. They've got too many deer there already, thinking their crops!
Secondly, in a population study, they found that within a year, nearly all of the relocated deer had died, many due to the shock of being moved.
Mark
This is exactly what happens when hunters, a vital part of the ecosystem, are systematically vilified, ridiculed, and made into pariahs for sixty years. This is also yet another concrete example of good intentions paving the way to ruin.
I recall not that long ago, a woman was killed by a buck that she raised from a fawn, during it's first rut season. People don't seem to understand that deer are wild prey animals, and they will defend themselves if threatened, and males become very aggressive while in rut!
Mark
When I first started hunting back in the 70's, deer season was 2 days in December and there was a 2 deer limit. It was not unusual back then to go years without seeing a deer during that 2 day window.
As the population of deer soared, the length of the season grew as did the limit. But there were not enough hunters to keep the population under control.
These days, deer season lasts from late October until early January, and there is a 12 deer limit. It is not unusual to see deer in herds of 10 or 20 at a time. A few years ago, a friends wife, on her first day of hunting and her first month of shooting a rifle, bagged 2 deer in one day from the same spot.
I, and several of my hunter friends, stopped hunting several years ago because it is no longer a challenge. The days of getting up before dawn in the freezing cold and sitting silently in a tree for hours (all of which I kinda liked, btw) is unnecessary.
In some places you can walk out into a field with a boombox on your shoulder, smoking a cigarette and singing at the top of your lungs ... and shoot 3 or 4 deer on the other side of the field that no longer seem to care about humans being around.
Deer ping.
Mad Deer Disease.
This was over 30 years ago.
It was more likely "mad testosterone" disease...:))
Every year, after the rut the buck was as tame as a puppy.
[was there "mad deer" disease way back then?]
Useful - We have an ample supply of rats in congress!
I live in the city at a place where a creek bed deadends into a four-lane road. Whay happens is that the deer come wandering out of the creek bed, wondering why the creek stopped, and just dash about trying to figure out whether it is safe to stop for lunch or if they need to keep moving (we've also seen some foxes and a couple of roadrunners with the same puzzled expression on their faces).
The deer aren't exactly happy to see humans but they aren't so panic-stricken as to interrupt their feeding either. We walkers and joggers don't shoot them so the memo hasn't gotten around for them to be afraid of us. Why, some of the girls even try to feed them.
I suspect that, in time, the deer won't fear us at all which will be a big mistake.
I'm curious, too, why we can't turn this potential food source into something that will improve our economy. Why not "deer for oil"?
"Where can I get me a huntin' license?"
The case is similar in California with the mountain lion. The voters passed a ballot proposition to protect the big cats. They have since overpopulated to the point that they are now regularly found in downtown Palo Alto looking for food. Government hunters kill them, often with whole squads of emergency personnel watching. They truck the bodies all the way to Sacramento for incineration (no taxidermy allowed). California now pays a very expensive bureacracy to put away more cats under depredation permits than used to be taken by people willing to pay $300 a pop for tags, at a far higher threat level to both public safety and the average health of the cats (they don't come into town unless they are hungry or have been chased out of the hills by competitors).
What they ignore are classic population dynamics: Deer were allowed to overpopulate because of various hunting bans. The cats will breed until the deer population crashes. Once that happens they'll be looking for substitutes or starve. Pets, livestock, children, runners, it won't matter (they aren't too fond of the numerous wild hogs in the area).
Ranchers used to take care of these little things rather quietly, until the bureaucrats put them out of business so that developers could make money in real estate, the public could have more parks, and the County could cash in on the taxes. This is what we get with a democratized commons.
So, we can't trust those private hunters with years of experience and thousands of dollars in equipment (it's their fault that the deer breed?). We need unionized government hunters (complete with fat pensions) and with no market allowed for the kill.
What was once an asset, under government management, has now become a very expensive liability.
The title alone was enough to make me come looking for pictures of the Jack-o-lope!
Heck yeah!
They say they are looking for sharpshooters.
How much would that job pay?
If one takes less pay...can he keep the meat???
Oh you went and did it now.
Looks like I am gonna have to pull some deer sausage from the freezer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.