Letter: Against city deer ‘thinning’

There has got to be a better way of thinning out the deer population then setting up a stand in the cemetery and shooting the deer in the city limits.

Some of us actually love the deer. I realize that they do raise havoc with gardens and yards in the summer, but who decides whether or not to kill them? Many people actually enjoy them.

All winter we watched them from our windows. During hunting season we prayed that they all survived it. Some of them do, some of them don’t and some return injured. I can accept hunting season, but I am having trouble accepting this “spring cleaning” that is going on.

When you watch the deer, you see that they are very loving creatures. They would not intentionally hurt anyone. Yesterday, I watched a mother lying in the woods while her two fawns chased each other in circles around her. Today I walked out my door just in time to see the mother deer get shot and the two fawns run for their lives. About a half hour later the two fawns were trying to creep up to the edge of the woods to see where their mom was. It was getting dark and she was dead. Before it got too dark for me to see anymore, I watched the poor fawns wander around the woods like they didn’t know what to do or where to go. It broke my heart.

I can only assume that tomorrow the “hired guns” will kill the two fawns also. I know that there are many people that do not like the deer, but what about those of us who do? We live where we live because we love the deer in our yard and the owls and eagles in our trees. I don’t remember being asked if it was OK for someone to come in and destroy that.

What does the number of deer have to be at for the decision to be made to come in and kill them? If we must “thin” out the deer, could there be some guideline set? Maybe only kill the bucks in the off season? Maybe take it out of town?

I don’t have an answer to this so called “deer problem.” I am just hoping that someone can come up with a better plan than what we have because I don’t have a problem with the deer, but I do have a problem with the way they are currently being destroyed.

Tags: deer_thinning, hudson, opinion