Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:01:58 -0400
From: Jeff Lane
Subject: Deer again…
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 12:19, Chatham Chatlist wrote:
This?post is a plea for the deer who call the Town of Pittsboro home.? Feel for the deer,?who will come to ruination by such an unnatural and unkind death. Feel for these poor creatures, and then with an armed conscience, act and call the Town Manager at 542-4621 to call a halt to prevent hunting in the Town of Pittsboro.
The power to break this cruelty will be born in our hearts. I know that there are many people in Pittsboro who care and, yes, even dare love deer. If we all but stood and let it be known…
This is another thing that is brought up and rehashed every hunting season, and every time a new law regarding deer hunting is mentioned…
The single biggest reason, is deer overpopulation. Deer are NOT all that great at regulating their own population based on food availability. To a certain degree, yes, but not completely, and Chatham is quite overpopulated. One only need count the number of carcasses along the roads in Chatham, or count the herds during the drive home. There have been many nights driving home from work where I have counted upwards of 30 or more deer on the side of the road in various places… and there are weeks it seems where I see a new dead deer every time I venture out.
The truth is, WE, as people, do a very poor job of regulating our OWN population, spitting out kid after kid after kid. This causes a need for us to develop more land for our own habitat, shrinking the natural habitat of the deer population. In turn, we displace and/or kill off the deer’s natural predators, like wolves and coyotes.
We’ve heard of recent upswings in coyote sightings, and while I haven’t seen any yet, I still say bring them to my place and let them have the deer that roam along the streets on my end of the county.
In 7 years living here, I’ve been involved personally in 5 deer strikes, costing me three vehicles and repairs to two others. My wife has hit three, at least. All in Chatham county.
WE have to assume the role of predator because we destroyed the existing predators. It’s not cruel. It’s nature. Do you really mean to say that a hunter shooting a deer with an arrow or bullet is more cruel than a deer ripped apart by a pack of wolves, a hungry coyote, or any other natural predators that existed here in the past?
Or maybe shooting the deer is more cruel than starvation, a slow, painful death. Ever see a deer chewing on pavement because there are no more salt/mineral deposits left for it to forage? or how about the deer that lays, bleeding internally on the side of the road because it wandered out into the street while chewing on clover or licking
asphalt or just heading across the street with the other 5 – 10 members of its herd?
If you really want to see wild animal populations balance themselves out, then perhaps the only real solution is for humans to start controlling their own population, and stop their relentless invasion into deer territory.
Just the way I see it. I’ve never killed a deer with a well placed bullet, but I have sent plenty of them to a slow agonizing death along the roads both here in NC and in VA where I grew up.
Sorry to sound so cruel, but that’s the way it is…
Jeff