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Editorial: Managing the Village Deer Population |
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 27 July 2007 |
 A friend joined my table at Linda's Diner a few months ago, long faced and a bit dazed. On his way to breakfast a deer had run in front of his car, causing significant damage to the car, not to mention the deer. The cost of repairs was considerable, and the deer was irreparable. Meanwhile more deer than our area can sustain have run through the local flora at an alarming rate. They are decimating trees and gardens as fast as people can plant them. Natural wooded areas are also being stripped by the furry, four-footed locusts.
After researching the problem the Village of Lansing Trustees have learned that culling the population is the only effective and legal way to control deer in an area where an average of 30 deer collide with cars per year. But nobody wants to use the work 'cull,' because it may have negative connotations for people who have a sympathetic affinity for the Bambi stereotype of a young deer whose parents are murdered by evil human hunters. Popularly labeled 'The Bambi Syndrome,' it has prevented culling in many communities because of real or imagined opposition to killing deer.
But surprisingly there has been little opposition to a proposed controlled hunt in the Village, evidently because of extreme frustration with the destruction the deer are inflicting. Trustees themselves frequently express outrage at damaged caused on their own property, and have struggled with finding humane, effective solutions. The current plan, if it comes together in time for bow hunting season, is to conduct an invitational, controlled bow hunt on the Sundown Farm property, with members of the LBH Archery Club the only invited hunters. That will insure that a small group of responsible, skilled bowhunters will conduct a hunt that is humane to the deer, and safe for Village residents. Any meat the hunters can't use themselves will be donated to the Venison Donation Coalition, which oversees quality control in meat processing, and distributes the meat to the needy.
This approach makes sense to me. It can be convincingly argued that it is inhumane not to hunt, because there is not enough food to sustain the overpopulation. And as LBH Archery Club President John Huether points out, a quick shot by a skilled bowhunter is a lot more humane death than a deer that wanders away from an auto collision, possibly taking hours or days to die.
As North Dakota bowhunter Mark Banta points out in an irreverent article on his Strictly Hunting Web site, hunters play a key role in managing wildlife. "Bambi is not, and never was a living creature," he says. "Bambi was a cartoon. It's a lot less painful and humane to shoot and kill a deer than for that deer to die slowly of disease, starve to death, or being eaten alive by a predator."
The apparent lack of opposition in the Village speaks to the level of damage the deer have done in recent years. The Village Trustees are certainly taking a responsible position in protecting citizens and property, as well as humanely managing the deer.
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