“Some towns are becoming more tolerant of hunters than of deer, noting that while guns kill 31,000 Americans a year, hunters kill only about 100, mostly each other. Deer, on the other hand, kill upward of 250 people a year—drivers and passengers—and hospitalize 30,000 more.” – Jim Sterba, America Gone Wild [via wsj.com] [h/t Eric]
More deer regulation, please. What about the children?
Guns kill 31,000 people a year? I don’t think so. People kill people using whatever means available, weapons, cars, pollutants, accidents, kindness, etc., etc. Wait, I’m seeing a trend here. The problem is people. We need to ban people….
Or elect a new one…
“We need to ban the people…”
You win all my daily internets with this comment, good sir.
I actually think her numbers on deer is a little low. White tail deer are the most dangerous animals in North America.
More dangerous than pit bulls by a factor of 10.
31,000 a year? We had 13000 murders in 2010, 9000 of which involved the use of a firearm> Bogus stat is bogus.
58 THOUSAND dollars for professional deer removal. Find some bow hunters and they could have MADE money to get rid of the plague of giant antlered rats.
“But by blanketing sprawl with firearms restrictions and hunting prohibitions in the name of safety we have taken ourselves out of the predation business in just a few decades.” So the author knows the problem… But I still say for urban/suburban areas a crossbow or compound would be better. Specially Crossbows. If SWAT departments in the Gulf of Mexico use Nutria rats for target practice, your local sheriff should be allowed to use a crossbow to get rid of over populated deer, donate the food to homeless shelters.
“He also thinks towns could train local hunters (typically cops and firefighters) to sharp shoot and then recoup town costs by selling the venison at local farm markets.” Cops and Firefighters? A lot of police departments don’t even trust their employees to have decent sidearms, could you imagine what would happen if you let pencil pushers decide which rifles for them to use?
Seriously, if they just let a few guys with crossbows to shoot any doe on sight, a lot of the problems would go away. The best thing you can do for a wild animal that’s living in and around humans where it is a danger to humans and itself, is to run shrieking at it with your arms waving around until it runs away. Gotta put the fear back in them.
The deer kill people not because of car wrecks or hunting accidents but actually because they have those little shoulder thingies that go up mounted in their antlers. We need more shoulder thingies laws for deer!!!
(sarc off).
Why the heck don’t they just raise out limit in overpopulated areas!! Hell there are families all over this country who would love to have meat on the table because they are starving and need it.
As far as accidents yea they do cause them…a 160lb die took me out in Nov1988 when she ran out and into the front end of my new Harley. It killed her and the Harley, I got 6 months in a wheelchair, 2 knee surgeries, numerous other fractures and 6 months of rehab. And another new Harley which the first time I got to ride it, it was 14 months old and had 13 miles on it!!!
Sorry to read about your accident. Hope you’ve fully recovered. I had an accident on my 150cc that put me in the emergency room. My left shoulder is much weaker and limited with motion than it used to be.
Confucius say: Being in the pathway of a bullet kills people.
Last year a motorcycle rider was killed when a deer leaped from the woods onto his cycle. A different rider crested a hill in Idaho at night and rode into a grizzly that was asleep on the road. The cycle got totaled, the bear killed, and the rider flew head over heels landing on a pond next to the road. He was fully padded in leather and didn’t get hurt. Deer can be more dangerous than grizzly bears.
I’m going to do my part this weekend to reduce the deer population.
Good luck and happy hunting!
Happy Hunting. Venison jerky is good.
http://www.houstonpress.com/2003-11-06/restaurants/shooting-bambi-s-mom/
Excellent article from a few years ago by a guy I’m friends with and is one hell of a cookbook author. As he points out, the real issue here is that every Bubba with an aught-six wants a trophy rack to hang on the wall and could really care less about game management. In the Texas Hill Country this has resulted in herds where the buck-to-doe ratio can be as low as one to 20. Yeah, I know, every guy’s dream but it’s not what us tree-huggers call a sustainable population. Besides, the does taste better.
Back in the day I lived in a Northern VA suburb (just outside DC). The treehuggers wanted all hunting in the area to cease, partially due to proximity of housing developments but mostly because it was just “inhumane”. So they got regulations passed and hunting stopped. Within two years the same folks were screaming because all of their expensive landscaping had been eaten to the ground and the level of BMW/Deer collisions was off the charts. So what did they do? Brought in “professionals” to eliminate the “pests” at significant cost (when the hunters would have done it for free).
No, not for free. They would have gladly PAID for the privilege!
That would be *fawn* regulation.
The biggest hazard around here is cattle sleeping in the roadway. Nothing like coming up suddenly on a Black Angus sleeping on a two lane asphalt road on a moonless night. Up in the north east, I hear the real issues are not deer but moose. If you hit a deer with a car or pickup, you may need to get a new vehicle, but kissing meese is a deadly business.