Posted on 11/01/2005 12:39:02 PM PST by GreenFreeper
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It's almost deer season here in Texas and no matter how many we shot, they just keepa comin. There's too many idiots around here feeding them like they're pets.
So we can kill off the deer and increase our risk of avian flu, or let the deer drive off the birds, and increase the risk of cwd?
Get out, fellas, and do some hunting!
Republican deer hate the environment?
Damn those deer! GET ME MY GUN?!
This may be the first study on this topic specifically restricted to "areas unaffected by human activities such as forestry or hunting", but there have been previous studies finding the exact same thing in all areas with large deer populations. As an owner of well-fed, spayed/neutered, free-roaming cats, I get tired of hearing how cats are responsible for the decline in bird populations. In suburban areas, it's the result of pervasive paving and unnatural landscaping and bright lights at night, and in rural areas, it's the result of now predator-less deer wiping out practically every natural plant species other than ferns and barberries.
EAT MORE VENISON!
I'm havin' Bambi (and his mom!) for dinner...
Deer population increases -- warblers and woodpeckers suffer most.
Personally, I am so tired of the deer management issue. We need more hunting, period. Whether its human hunters or the introduction of other predators, something needs to control deer populations!
Kill more dear deer and give the venison to all the poor starving victims of Katrina.
I wonder if they'd eat it?
Maybe if they would if they were told it was KFC or Church's or "Mickey D's"
As someone who spends a lot of time in the woods, I would say that yes, there are more deer now than ever; however, I beleive that it is not so much the deer as it is the exclusive row planting of pines- of which almost nothing of food value grows under (until they are matured and thinned). If you hunt an oak hammock and the next day a thick planted pine forest, you'll see immediately where the birds aren't. Until we get better forest management techniques, we're going to have this problem, but in the meantime break out that 30-30 and lets all eat some venison!
I am a hunter, and have shot sick deer the government people said can't exist.
I am also told, that wolves eat only the sick animals, so why not bring back the wolves? even tho the sick deer don't exist, don't want to call the government folks liars.
I'll be just outside of Llano, Texas this Saturday morning doing my part to alleviate the deer overpopulation problem. With the exception of any wild turkeys I encounter I'll leave it up to you to take care of thinning out the birds.
Nope. It should be Popeye's Venison. Ummmm.
I grew up in rural PA, where there would be school holidays for hunting season. When you drove on the roads, one rarely saw deer. One had to sneak up on them at night with spotlights.
Now I drive my kids to school in the outer VA suburbs of D.C. This morning I had to slow to avoid a buck and a doe in the middle of the road. Every morning and afternoon it's deer, deer, deer everywhere.
Personally I think more research needs to be put into contraceptives for them. Most people don't really want wolves and mountain lions roaming the densely human-populated areas where a lot of the deer are living now. And hunting or professional sharpshooting is actually and politically impractical in suburban areas.
The latter was tried once in my suburban township, after a long heated debate between the anything-to-save-my-prize-peonies crowd, the how-COULD-you-think-of-hurting-adorable-Bambi crowd, and the Oh-my-God!-Not-GUNS! crowd. The prize-peonies crowd originally won, after assuring the Not-GUNS! crowd that only professional sharpshooters would be used, and that residents would be informed in advance of the dates, times, and locations. The adorable-Bambi crowd had gone rather quiet after a local father was decapitated in a deer-car collision while driving his 7 year old son to soccer practice (the adorable-Bambi crowd seems to consist largely of soccer moms). But when the first shooting day came, the local government bureaucrats predictably forgot to inform the affected residents, and the police were flooded with calls from terrified suburbanites who'd heard very nearby rifle shots while out tending their prize peonies. The prize-peonies crowd promptly forgot about their peonies and joined the Not-GUNS! crowd, and I can pretty well guarantee that no deer will ever be shot in my township again in my lifetime.
Hunting in rural areas can certainly help, but isn't likely to solve the whole probelm, and to some extent (like my second home near state game lands) increased hunting would drive a larger number of deer onto private residential property, where shooting them becomes more problematic. We need some nice little "treats" that folks who are inclined to feed Bambi can helpfully distribute, to keep Bambi from making so many little Bambis.
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