Posted on 01/19/2014 7:46:14 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
From New York to California, local governments are spending taxpayer dollars to sterilize female deer, but critics say the approach is a misguided, ineffective and “incredibly expensive” approach to thinning out the herds that has become a suburban scourge.
While some communities have used lethal means to curb the exploding population of deer, which roam backyards, destroy gardens and wander into traffic, others have taken what they see as a more humane approach — tranquilizing female deer and removing their ovaries.
Average costs are about $1,200 per deer, according to a 2011 report by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that did not recommend such programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Average cost of one round of ammo 50 cents. :-)
I'm in the exurbs of Charlotte. There are substantial areas of dense woods, providing cover for deer, where they sleep, breed, and bear and protect their young.
But dense woods alone aren't enough, because little food grows under a forest canopy. So deer are drawn to the edges of woodlands, where young, edible growth takes place, or, better yet as far as the deer are concerned, there are crops or azaleas (yum) landed by humans. Of course, these forest edges explain why there are so many unfortunate deer-vehicle interactions: the Department of Transportation cuts a swath through the woods for the construction of a new highway, and in so doing creates more forest "edges" where food grows convenient to hiding areas.
And then, there are creeks and ponds -- a plethora of then hereabouts. Water is necessary for them, obviously, and the creek beds become deer highways, for escaping harm, or moving on to another food source.
On top of that, I live in an incorporated town which prohibits hunting. I am convinced that the deer have figured this out. There has been some talk of permitting bow hunting, but nothing has come of it. Weddington is a town in name only (TINO?); with the exception of one small retail center, it's a combination of large-lot (1 to 3 acres) residential, and open, as yet undeveloped, land, some of which is farmed, and some of which just sits there looking pretty.
So, we have deer. A lot of them. It is not uncommon to see a half-dozen or more wandering through my neighborhood -- most often seen at dawn or dusk, but sometimes in broad daylight (see my home page for a pic of a doe I took from inside my house).
I rather like having the deer around, but then I don't tend to worry about them eating my hydrangeas. I actually planted "deer mix" over my septic field, and it seems to be popular.
These guys can help. They are my neighbors.
https://www.facebook.com/colorcountryoutfitters?filter=1
The old bull on the hill story...
I live in the country, not a ‘burb-but if there is a bad/dry year and the game count shows too many deer, you can get extra doe tags. Over-population is a bad thing, resulting in sickly animals that spread disease, and culling staves it off. This nonsense of sterilizing deer might make the townies feel good, but it is not sensible or natural. They ranch deer in some parts of Europe-but not here, because of the dollars made by the big hunting concerns-really dumb...
Venison is an all-natural, healthy food-much better than store-bought feed lot beef, which has high levels of hormones, antibiotics, fat and God-knows-what-else. I buy local grass-fed beef, but I hunt for my own venison when I have the opportunity, and prefer the taste.
Coyotes and resident mountain lions do a good job of making dinner of the sick and inferior deer out here, but I suppose in the ‘burbs the presence of lots of high fences and the absence of predators precludes natural selection.
Game fencing is cheap enough, and keeps deer out of my food garden and other places they don’t need to go into...
Some people here are fond of placing pretty pots of geraniums on their decks and patios, in yards fenced with chainlink, as if they were still in a city. The deer just walk over that fence, eat every geranium down to the roots, knock over the pots and walk down to the river to drink water and find another yard with geraniums...
Never thought about the disease aspect.
Yeah, I think it’s more humane to use the appropriate ammo.
Plus it would probably help fatten them up for the hunters.
“I also can’t help but feel like, one day... they may be supper.”
One day, you will come home from work and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed will tell you the #$%^@)*(P&* that ate her prize rose is awaiting skinning out in the rose garden.
I had deer steak yesterday. Awesome...
I would rather see a .22 used in a neighborhood than a .308.
It’s gotten so bad that we even tell them where to cross the roads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll be tasked with both the bagging and skinning, BUT, it will have originated as an order from She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.
Hell, we're well on our way to that here in Idaho.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
My old city wasted a fortune trying to put the geese that plagued the parks on birth control. When sanity set in and they hired some one to start shooting them and donating them to the homeless shelter the libs went berserk.
We had a pond that would attract ducks every year. One year someone put an Alligator Snapping Turtle in the pond.
When mother duck would swim along with the new babies in tow all of a sudden a baby would disappear under water never to be seen again. One by one.
One guy fished the turtle out after a few years but the ducks never came back.
Good! Revenues that won’t go into the personal accounts of the crooks! Don’t feed the animals by buying revenue-generating hunting tags and paying the other high-priced, associated fees. And remember that the big hunting tourism states are socialist states (except maybe Wyoming).
I’ll bet the local game warden lost more than a few nights sleep trying to determine who was poaching them ducks.
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