Managing Our Region's Deer Population
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2013-01-30/managing-our-regions-deer-population
Residents of the Washington region -- even those in the urban core -- need only look outside their windows to notice the booming deer population. Managing the local herds is a sensitive matter: the animals affect the survival of forests and pose a threat to motorists. We explore what some communities in Maryland are doing to make sure humans, forests and deer coexist successfully.
Guests
Kevin Sullivan
Certified Wildlife Biologist; State Director (MD,DE,DC) of Wildlife Services, USDA
Brian Eyler
Deer Project Leader, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Bill McShea
Wildlife Ecologist, Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo
Comments
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Other options include Nonprofit organizations such as Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia, Inc., established in 1997 who utilize professional Bowhunters to cull & manage deer herds on private properties and or communities. Bowhunting in these settings has proven to be an effective method as well as safe and nonintrusive to local residents.
See; www.deerdamage.org
While I'm glad a representative of the Humane Society of the U.S. was able to briefly speak, why wasn't a deer protection advocate invited to be a guest on the show so listeners can hear a more balanced perspective?
In response to EHuppert's posted comment, bowhunting is extremely inhumane. See, for example:
http://animalrightscoalition.com/doc/bowhunting_factsheet.pdf
We used to have a lot of Deer here in Southern MD. St. Charles
Now I do not see any.
Yea, right kill off all the Deer and build more Houses, Roads, Apts. etc. I never saw Deer raise the Crime level or polution level .dave
Mary, I question and challenge the sources for the statistics in articles such as the one you site. I think you'll find they are based mostly on outdated reports and or studies. To the contrary, Suburban Whitetail Management (SWMNV) can and does show, for example, harvest (recovery) reports, based on actual & factual data between 92%-95% over the last five years. If you remove the emotional and or ignorant (no offense intented) aspects from the discussion you will see that (professional) groups such as this have proven, in their case over fifteen years, that Bowhunting is indeed a safe, effective AND humain method of dealing with deer management needs. Like it or not, it works.
I found this show to be hugely biased and disappointing. Nothing new here, just the same old tropes about "needing" to kill wild animals. Nnamdi simply handed deer over on a platter to hunters. Disgusting.
So shocking to not hear a word about the stupendous amount of suffering caused by bow hunters. Just the other day I received yet another video of a doe with an arrow through her throat pacing back and forth and stamping her foot over and over. Shot by some low-life who thinks shooting defenseless and practically tame animals with arrows is so much fun.
So shocking to not have on the show any discussion, or anyone qualified to discuss, the cruelty inherent in archery.
According to a summary of 19 different studies on bow-hunting compiled by The Humane Society of the US the average wounding rate is 55%, and several studies indicate that bow-hunting causes more than a 58% wounding rate. This means that for every deer dragged from the woods by a bow-hunter at least one deer is left to suffer and die an excruciating death over a period of hours or days. Not to mention the untold numbers of animals who are injured and crippled for life.
Archery as a method of hunting should be against the law.
Why didn't Nnamdi have anyone on the show who has witnessed managed hunts and "sharpshooter" culls? There are hundreds of people in the MD, VA, DC area who have seen the most horrible suffering caused by these hunts -- right here in close-in Virginia and Maryland.
So shocking to not have invited any guest onto the show who could speak for the deer --who have no voice -- and to speak for the people who want to keep the deer alive.
So shocking to not have anyone on the show who is qualified to talk about the inherent paradox of hunting: When food is plentiful, deer tend to have twins and even triplets. When food is scarce, they have single fawns, or stop reproducing altogether. After many deer are killed the remaining ones produce more fawns since more food is now available to them.
Why didn't Nnamdi invite wildlife biologists who have spent their entire careers on wildlife contraception onto the show? Instead we got three typical anachronistic wildlife management people who are living in the previous century. The future of wildlife population control is contraception -- and the use of other non-lethal methods like fencing, wildlife corridors, highway alerting systems for wild animals, and so on -- not killing them.
Kojo, here's another topic for a show: Our forests are changing! Global warming, suburban sprawl, hordes of people, the cataclysmic loss of pollinators such as bees and bats, the use of more and increasingly dangerous pesticides, and the catastrophic invasion of masses of exotic plant species are changing our forests permanently -- more than any herd of deer ever could.