In the Suburbs, What to Do About a Deer (Good eating alert)

Washington Post ^ | September 12, 2002 | Bob Levey

[Frohickey]

Here are some excerpts since its from the Washington Post...

"I sat on the curb and stroked the deer's head," Cynthia writes. "He responded by opening his eyes and putting his head in my hands. . . . I wished that everyone could feel what I felt at that moment."

Which he managed to do, shortly after police officers arrived. They mercifully shot the animal to death and told the man he could have the corpse. The man did his butchering in full view of several children, all ages 10 to 12, according to Cynthia.

[Frohickey]

Click on the link to read the story. There is also a link to the email address of the author Bob Levey.

Here is the email that I sent him.

---

Hello,

I read your column titled "In the Suburbs, What to Do About a Deer", and there were several things I would like to discuss.

1) The man that wanted the deer meet is probably more humane than Cynthia Fain. He would have ended the animal's suffering, while also, not letting the sacrifice the deer made go to waste by rotting away.

2) Cynthia Fain, if she cared for the animal, would have done the difficult task of ending the animal's suffering herself. Instead, she would be the selfish one and stroke the deer's head to give her comfort.

3) The man, in butchering/field dressing the deer's carcass in full view of several children, is involving the children in the harvesting of meat. Be it a demonstration of field dressing. Children, nowadays do not know what is involved in putting the food they eat on the table. They think its just a quick trip to the grocery store or fast food. But there are fields to fertilize, water, livestock to feed and butcher, in order to feed them. Here is a perfect opportunity to expose the children that life (in sustenance) is possible from death (harvested grains/livestock).

4) Cynthia Fain is the odd one of the bunch. The man has just been doing what man has done before. Think back in the colonial days, when men and boys were expected to go out and bring back meat on the table. The children were just being exposed to the natural way of putting meat on the table.

Sincerely,

[gc4nra]

It's the "Circle of Life!"

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Cynthia says the children who saw the incident were extremely troubled by the man's behavior, and she "walked away from the scene in tears."

Too many people nowadays believe they are vegetarians merely because they pay someone else to butcher the beef in their McDonald's hamburgers. These are the same people who belong to the Sierra Club.

[GOP_1900AD]

I sure could go for someone coming up to my place and shooting the deer (no hunting by us mere plebians allowed, too densely populated for that) and giving them to me to butcher. "Coach potato hunting"... how excellent. I can taste the jerkey just thinking about it! Also BBQ!

[riverrunner]

This gal has watched way to much TV my daughter has been helping butcher her deer from the time she was old enough to shoot them. Before that she helped cut up the ones my wife and myself shot. The gal should have pulled out her pocket knife cut its throat.

[Tom Bombadil]

Cynthia says the children who saw the incident were extremely troubled by the man's behavior, and she "walked away from the scene in tears."

Maybe she should take the children to MacDonalds for a happy meal. That would make them feel better and she could tell them that the meat in the burger was picked from a tree.

[equus]

Agree. Eat meat--but let somebody else slaughter it--those animals don't have feelings--but the deer on your lawn does.

The deer in your neighborhood also carries re-emerging infections like lyme disease, babesiosis, and other stuff that can ruin people's health and lives, and the deer in the upper midwest have mad deer disease, so it's coming to your neighborhood too.

Nature keeps a balance. By letting all the deer live and all the trees grow, we ended up with some serious problems on our hands.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Good grief. In my area the deer should have been tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. Perhaps there is still time.

[the bottle let me down]

The gal should have pulled out her pocket knife cut its throat.

There is no chance that the woman in question carries a pocket knife. She's probably never owned one in her life. In fact, she probably gets queasy if she has to cut a whole chicken into parts and doesn't like to think about the contents of the giblet package in her free-range, organic Thanksgiving turkey--she'd rather buy her gravy in a jar at the local Fresh Fields.

In other words, she's a good Montgomery County soccer mom: pro-choice, anti-gun, and completely clueless.

[weikel]

Hey I like the deer...

[TopQuark]

By letting all the deer live and all the trees grow, You mean all those forests that are now corn fields?

[LibKill]

Deer stew, deer tacos, deer steak, fried deer, boiled deer, deer nachos, deer and rice, deer tartare, deer in a blanket, deer appetizers, deer stir-fry, deer on a stick, deer hot-dogs, deer barbeque.

I guess that's just about it.

Apologies to Forrest Gump and Bubba.

[Annakin]

[Dinsdale]

boiled deer

Let me guess, your are of english or irish extraction.

Boiling meat, what a travisty.

And you forgot deer chili.

[Fzob]

Let's not turn suburban Maryland into a place where savagery is condoned in the name of free meat.

That snippet from the WP article about sums up the author's ignorance.

[LibKill]

Let me guess, your are of english or irish extraction.

Ahem, where to start?

Yes, I forgot deer chili, may the ghost of Stephen F. Austin forgive me.

I am not an englishman, or irishman, or any of what those things entails.

[Dinsdale]

Did'nt mean anything by it, just that boiled meat is a waste of meat.

Many Irish are OK IMHO, scotts as well. They just don't know how to cook or make beer (ducking flames from guiness^h^h^h^h^heniss^h^h^h^h^h^h^hsludge drinkers).

[LibKill]

Many Irish are OK IMHO, scotts as well. They just don't know how to cook or make beer

Well, as my old dad would say, "It's all a matter of taste, as the man said while kissing the cow."

You will have to admit that the Scots and the Irish make some powerful whiskey.

[Dinsdale]

You will have to admit that the Scots and the Irish make some powerful whiskey.

Powerful good whiskey.

[gieriscm]

I've hunted land very close to the suburbs in the DC metro area. A suppressed .308 with subsonic (very heavy bullet running about 900 fps) hand-loads makes a very lethal, effective, and safe method of culling the herd in areas where soccer-moms live. Best of all, they don't hear a thing. :)