Commentary: The Great Deer Hunt

Editor’s Note: The following letter addresses the proposal by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to permit shotgun deer hunting in the Blue Hills Reservation in an effort to cull the deer population, which is currently estimated at 85 per square mile. Click here for a copy of the draft deer management plan.

Dear Editor:

Is the deer population exploding, or are the humans again encroaching on their space? Everywhere there is building, the cutting of forests, or parts thereof, to make concrete and asphalt jungles we call home.

How do you correctly count moving deer? Is it an approximate count or was the same deer counted more than once?

Hunters do have a right to hunt and should if they choose to do so, but not necessarily on the much traveled, explored, and deeply appreciated Blue Hills Reservation. How does a hunter prevent the traumatic experience of carrying his trophy home possibly in front of young children or other people who are not hunters?

If deer ticks are the reason for this hunt, then I say it’s bogus. Dogs, cats, other wildlife, bushes, trees, the forest, golf courses, etc. all have ticks. As for the foliage, maybe the deer do us a favor by getting rid of the ticks’ habitat.

Saying there is “x amount of deer per acre” is as foolish as saying “no two flakes are the same,” possibly counted by the same person. To the powers that be (who’ve already paved the way for this hunt), please use proper common sense — a deer slug is lethal. Maybe, just maybe, give a free, controlled hunt elsewhere — not in a place as troublesome or as dangerous as in the reservation.

Sincerely,

Bob Corkery

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=30974

Posted by Guest on Oct 1 2015. Filed under Featured Content, From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.