There has been a small letter to the editor's war going on in the local paper regarding deer hunting. I really enjoyed today's letter and thought I should share it with my cub friends.
http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060110/OPINION03/601100342/1014/OPINION
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Standing up for endangered vegetation
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That's a great response to the typical rantings from some tree-huggers. I'd like to see the original rants, but after 7 days it comes at a price.
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That is a humourus, priceless take on the situation, to be sure.
Although I don't hunt, mostly because I can catch a chill and aggravate my arthritis in much easier ways, without paying for a license to do so, I have helped many relatives and friends butcher their kills here at my home, since I do have the equipment to do so, and I do enjoy the butchering part of it (plus it usually yields free deer meat... )
In Pennsylvania, Deer were hunted to endangered levels only during the great depression, when many locals conducted massive drives, herding the animals towards waiting machine guns (illegal leftovers from WWI). Although this might seem cruel to you now. The situation of the times was entirely different. I recall my grandparents telling me of sugar being sold kinda the way drugs are now, in clandestine meetings held in back alleys, where sometimes illegal alcohol was the medium of exchange.
The point of all this cloak and dagger business, and the mass execution of wildlife was simple. Preventing hunger for people's families, and trying to keep life as normal as possible in the face of massive unemployment.
The government, thankfully, turned a blind eye to these practices, and ultimately, with FDR's help, most rural folk got through it, ok.
In the 1970's PA's deer population exploded, mostly due to inaccurate census estimates on the part of the Fish and Game Department, and we began to see massive crop damage. They wildy increased the number of licenses available, until, by the end of the 1970's, unlimited buck licenses had become the norm, which it still is today. This had only a moderate affect of the deer population, and it still remained grotesquely elevated.
The strategy in the new century, has been to offer multiple season buck stamps....wherein you may take a buck during archery season, another during rifle, and yet another during muzzleloader season, in many counties. A huge increase in the number of doe license available has also been done in other counties. The combination has finally stabilized the deer population, but at "higher than native" population rates. -- Meaning, there are more deer in PA now, than in pre-colonization times.
Anyone who argues against the hunting practice had better be prepared to offer another suggestion to the answer of the deer population problem. Trials of "contraceptives" in other animals, such as racoons have proven to be both expensive to the taxpayers, and largely ineffective. This is obviously not the answer. The end results of allowing the population to increase to a natural equilibrium are disastrous, resulting in massive crop damage, increased car accidents, massive herd starvation, disease, and an increase in predator population (wild dogs, wolves, and coyotes....yeah, I want a lot more of those around).
This also brings me to another question....just what are vegetarians and veggans supposed to eat if the deer have eaten all of the produce? Deer, like goats, can jump fences up to 8' high, so, how exactly is one supposed to keep them out of the fields? Eastern produce growers could not possibly afford to put 12' razor wire topped fences around their fields, without doubling or trippling the price of produce produced, hence, making them unable to compete with western (spelled California) growers who do not suffer as much deer damage.
In short, the whitetail deer has had 1 natural predator of significance in North America for the last 10,000 years -- man. Man showed up on the scene at the same time that the whitetail's previous natural predator of note, the sabre-toothed tigre, disappeared from North America due to climate change. Long before the English came to Jamestown, and began hunting them in Virginia, the native Americans had been hunting them for aeons, and doing a fine job of it, thank you. They hunted them extensively as a winter food source, and the Native American population in pre-colonization times was quite large, mind you. Several million by estimate, continent wide. Native Americans served to cull the weakest and slowest of the herd, making the population faster, stronger, and more able to replenish itself rapidly. In short, they forced evolution's hand, and created a "super-deer" species. Now, we have super-deer, and people want us to stop hunting them. Amazing.
Our mistake, as a culture, was not in killing the deer, but killing the Indians, and now with them gone, it is our job to replace them as the whitetail's only natural predator of any importance.
The only viable alternative I can think of is to start breeding siberian tigers, and letting them wander free. Animal lovers would think this a great idea, right up until the time they became a snack for the 1000 lb cat.
I wonder how many vegie-heads would rather become food to a tiger, than kill a deer, if presented with the real-life choice.
Although I don't hunt, mostly because I can catch a chill and aggravate my arthritis in much easier ways, without paying for a license to do so, I have helped many relatives and friends butcher their kills here at my home, since I do have the equipment to do so, and I do enjoy the butchering part of it (plus it usually yields free deer meat... )
In Pennsylvania, Deer were hunted to endangered levels only during the great depression, when many locals conducted massive drives, herding the animals towards waiting machine guns (illegal leftovers from WWI). Although this might seem cruel to you now. The situation of the times was entirely different. I recall my grandparents telling me of sugar being sold kinda the way drugs are now, in clandestine meetings held in back alleys, where sometimes illegal alcohol was the medium of exchange.
The point of all this cloak and dagger business, and the mass execution of wildlife was simple. Preventing hunger for people's families, and trying to keep life as normal as possible in the face of massive unemployment.
The government, thankfully, turned a blind eye to these practices, and ultimately, with FDR's help, most rural folk got through it, ok.
In the 1970's PA's deer population exploded, mostly due to inaccurate census estimates on the part of the Fish and Game Department, and we began to see massive crop damage. They wildy increased the number of licenses available, until, by the end of the 1970's, unlimited buck licenses had become the norm, which it still is today. This had only a moderate affect of the deer population, and it still remained grotesquely elevated.
The strategy in the new century, has been to offer multiple season buck stamps....wherein you may take a buck during archery season, another during rifle, and yet another during muzzleloader season, in many counties. A huge increase in the number of doe license available has also been done in other counties. The combination has finally stabilized the deer population, but at "higher than native" population rates. -- Meaning, there are more deer in PA now, than in pre-colonization times.
Anyone who argues against the hunting practice had better be prepared to offer another suggestion to the answer of the deer population problem. Trials of "contraceptives" in other animals, such as racoons have proven to be both expensive to the taxpayers, and largely ineffective. This is obviously not the answer. The end results of allowing the population to increase to a natural equilibrium are disastrous, resulting in massive crop damage, increased car accidents, massive herd starvation, disease, and an increase in predator population (wild dogs, wolves, and coyotes....yeah, I want a lot more of those around).
This also brings me to another question....just what are vegetarians and veggans supposed to eat if the deer have eaten all of the produce? Deer, like goats, can jump fences up to 8' high, so, how exactly is one supposed to keep them out of the fields? Eastern produce growers could not possibly afford to put 12' razor wire topped fences around their fields, without doubling or trippling the price of produce produced, hence, making them unable to compete with western (spelled California) growers who do not suffer as much deer damage.
In short, the whitetail deer has had 1 natural predator of significance in North America for the last 10,000 years -- man. Man showed up on the scene at the same time that the whitetail's previous natural predator of note, the sabre-toothed tigre, disappeared from North America due to climate change. Long before the English came to Jamestown, and began hunting them in Virginia, the native Americans had been hunting them for aeons, and doing a fine job of it, thank you. They hunted them extensively as a winter food source, and the Native American population in pre-colonization times was quite large, mind you. Several million by estimate, continent wide. Native Americans served to cull the weakest and slowest of the herd, making the population faster, stronger, and more able to replenish itself rapidly. In short, they forced evolution's hand, and created a "super-deer" species. Now, we have super-deer, and people want us to stop hunting them. Amazing.
Our mistake, as a culture, was not in killing the deer, but killing the Indians, and now with them gone, it is our job to replace them as the whitetail's only natural predator of any importance.
The only viable alternative I can think of is to start breeding siberian tigers, and letting them wander free. Animal lovers would think this a great idea, right up until the time they became a snack for the 1000 lb cat.
I wonder how many vegie-heads would rather become food to a tiger, than kill a deer, if presented with the real-life choice.
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Although I don't hunt personally (no time between work and house stuff and there are a few too many inexperienced hunters that shoot at anything that moves in the woods around here) I whole heartedly agree with Hunting and Fishing (I do fish) to help control populations. As 400lbsonacubseatspring pointed out if the population is not controlled then an increase in predators will follow and then those vegans will have an entirely different appreciation of hunters when the Coyotes start entering their backyards and killing their dogs and cats.
That has happened a few times around here and then people want a hunt for the Coyotes. This only fixes the immediate threat but does not equalize the system.
Just my 2 cents.
Chad
That has happened a few times around here and then people want a hunt for the Coyotes. This only fixes the immediate threat but does not equalize the system.
Just my 2 cents.
Chad
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