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Posted on 02/01/2010 5:00:30 PM PST by JoeProBono
Government sharpshooters are taking aim at hundreds of white-tailed deer in the national park surrounding the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland.
The move to reduce the deer population comes after nearly three decades of research and opposition from animal-rights advocates.
Acting Park Superintendent Sean Denniston said the hunt in Catoctin Mountain Park began Monday afternoon and will continue most weekday afternoons and nights through mid-March. Large sections of the park will be periodically closed, he said.
Park officials say the operation is intended to cull an outsize herd that has devoured so many saplings and low-hanging tree branches that the health of both the forest and the deer have suffered.
The estimated deer density of 123 per square mile is about eight times that of healthy forest ecosystems, Denniston said.
There has even been concern about the security and seclusion of the presidential retreat hidden within the 5,770-acre park, a former park superintendent told The Associated Press in 1997. One of the park's functions is to serve as a buffer for Camp David.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
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Probably doesn't like venison.
Chump.
Don’t shoot O’Bambi!
The deer population has grown out of control in a no-hunting area and now has to be thinned by gov’t hunters.
Imagine how things would be if no private hunters existed.
The estimated Obambi density of 1 per White Hut is about 1 to many for a healthy nation!
As my dad says - you can’t hit a deer with a bullet traveling 3,000fps but you sure can hit them with a car going 65mph .....
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm Deer... high powered rifle...Camp David...Happy Hunting!!
No truer words have ever been spoken!
Rumor has it that Bambi wears a suicide vest.
Thumper has become a radical Imam.
Not exactly surprising, that.
Come to think of it, it would'nt be all that hard to allow a special hunt there. I can see the Secret Service not wanting hunters prowling around Camp David when the President is there, fair enough, But there's plenty of time when he's not there that such a hunt could work.
I think the point of this hunt is that too many deer are setting off motion detectors and/or heat sensors...too close to Camp David.
Super Bowl next Sunday...bag um, Danno.
give the guys a little practice shooting live targets and help the food kitchens in the process.
Sounds like a plan.
Much too much chance of someone caching a weapon in the park and returning to use at at a later time.
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