Home Ec

Too Many Deer

Five-deer herd
Five-deer herd

This herd, a family unit that’s been traveling around the neighborhood in recent weeks, paused for morning brunch in our neighbor’s yard. They generally cross the road at a dead run, but haven’t gotten themselves or anyone else killed. Yet.

They and their ilk are why our vegetable gardens must have ten-foot fences with robust supports. There are no understory plants left in the wooded areas and precious few young trees; the deer population is literally eating everything in sight.

Vassar College recently culled 60-odd deer on their preserve in about ten hours, much to the dismay of the local animal huggers. It wasn’t a hunt; professional sharpshooters took ’em out.

We have a proposal: if you like deer so much, adopt ’em, haul ’em home, and take care of the things. Let them eat your shrubbery, crap all over your lawn, and infect your children, but keep them off the streets and out of your neighbor’s yards. Fair enough?

And let’s not get started about deer ticks. Dutchess County is the epicenter of Lyme Disease infections, for well and good reason.

7 thoughts on “Too Many Deer”

  1. I agree with your proposal. If anyone wants to take a few home with them there are many to accommodate! Deer seem to be a nuisance in many neighborhoods around the southeast and elsewhere as well. I’m not sure if the habitat for deer is truly shrinking all that much or if deer are simply more bold due to there being no hunting allowed in our urban areas. Regardless, the growing deer populations in many neighborhoods are a problem that is not easy to resolve.

    1. As nearly as I can tell, deer have no predators these days. Wolves and coyotes seem to be moving back around here, so maybe the situation will settle out after a few more years.

      The wolves will certainly take care of feral cats and yappy little dogs, too…

    2. “In 1935, white-tailed deer were introduced to Finland. The introduction was successful, and the deer have recently begun spreading through northern Scandinavia and southern Karelia, competing with, and sometimes displacing, native fauna. The current population of some 30,000 deer originate from four animals provided by Finnish Americans from Minnesota.”

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer#Ecology

      1. some 30,000 deer originate from four animals provided by Finnish Americans from Minnesota

        The gift that keeps on giving!

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