“The government sharpshooters worked so efficiently in the dead of the night in Rock Creek Park that by the end of this year’s short killing season, they had shot 106 white-tailed deer,” nytimes.com reports, without a hint of their usual anti-gun perspective. (Well, they were government sharpshooters.) “Make that 3,300 pounds of local venison turned into meatloaf, burgers and more for the surprised directors of homeless shelters and other charities across the capital.” The problem being? I mean, there has to be a problem, right? Of course! Rock Creek Park is smack dab in the middle of the nation’s capitol! Where people run and bicycle and grow marijuana. Leading one charity director to bleat . . .
“I don’t think of Rock Creek Park as a hunting ground,” said Michelle Durham, program director of Rachael’s Women’s Center, speaking of the expanse of forest and ravines where President Theodore Roosevelt once rode horses. She said she was shocked to learn that a recent batch of venison served at the center came from deer in the park, just two miles away . . .
“Now I’m wondering what other things I don’t know,” Ms. Durham of Rachael’s Women’s Center said.
Which leaves me wondering what else she’s wondering about. Me, I’m wondering why kids aren’t taught about hunting from an early age, regardless of their urban environs.
“The holiday had just happened,” said Brenda Thomas, a youth development specialist at [Hubbard Place]. “So the smaller kids were like, ‘Like Rudolph?’ ”
Ms. Thomas was also surprised to learn that D.C. Central Kitchen receives venison donations from Rock Creek Park, where the children have admired the deer they have seen on nature walks with Ms. Thomas. Among the children’s comments about the deer, she said, was, “Aw, that’s Bambi.”
As for the meals of venison that come from the park, Ms. Thomas said, “I would probably never tell the children that.”
Do it Ms. Thomas. Do it for the children. Tell them a dead deer is a terrible thing to waste.