Comments on: Book Report: The Beast in the Garden, Part One

By: Jack Diederich

Jack Diederich — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:07:11 +0000

Hey BlackOrchid, I grew up in Wayne (well, Strafford before the post office closed).

I now live in Boston and spend time in New Hampshire (where you can shoot guns without getting fingerprinted). Just a couple hundred miles North of PA the temperatures are slightly lower and this is enough to drastically reduce the deer population. I assume this is because of winter die-offs and not because the vegetation is much different (it isn’t).

Many of my friends who are PA/NJ expats remark on the change. You can drive on backroads at night at speed and without fear.

Dan From Madison, I didn’t mean to imply that deer taste like rats. Or maybe they do if rats are really tasty. I’ll never know.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:42:39 +0000

BlackOrchid – I feel sorry for you – feeding the deer is the absolute worst thing that your neighbors could do for the deer herd – and sanitation in general. And if you should happen to have a cougar or two wander in your area of the country…well…lets just say you will need to keep your dogs, cats and kids indoors.

By: BlackOrchid

BlackOrchid — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:38:22 +0000

Valley Forge, Main Line Philadelphia – deer are a HUGE problem. Huge.

I do know that if the state police consider a deer in good enough shape after being hit, they contact hunters in the area who take the carcass and do use the meat – I’ve eaten lots of Volvo-killed venison myself.

Where we live (West Chester) it’s getting worse every year. There are about 30 deer around our development. My neighbor legally had a bow hunter come last year, with her immediate neighbors (including us of course) approval, but neighbors down the hill from us made a big stink so he only got one day (and one doe). There are lots of morons who like to feed the little fawns here.

Meanwhile — of my family of four, two of us (including my two-year-old son) have had Lyme, and I’m sure the rest of us will soon enough. Not to mention the constant car accidents. I am sitting here right now staring at my fearless deer neighbors, wishing for a rifle . . .

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:43:35 +0000

I saw that cougar in Chicago (Roscoe Village). I will be VERY interested in the DNA test to see if it was a wild cougar or one raised in captivity – if that thing ends up being wild, we are in for some very interesting times.

By: Vince P

Vince P — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:58:14 +0000

Oh darn. i was wondering where he wandered off to.

By: Phil Fraering

Phil Fraering — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:55:30 +0000

btw, a cougar was shot and killed in the northern part of Chicago yesterday (the 14th at the time I’m writing this).

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:46:01 +0000

Jack – I like deer – really. Not much beats good venison backstraps. As I mentioned we are totally overrun here in Southern Wisco. I don’t see the DNR extending the hunting season until farmers crops start to get destroyed and a politician begins to lose a voting bloc. We have so many car deer accidents here that people stopped counting long ago. I harvested one myself with my Honda Odyssey a few years back.

By: Jack Diederich

Jack Diederich — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:34:52 +0000

I should clarify that where I grew up is a suburb on the main line outside Philadelphia and not out in the country.

A blame Walt Disney (seriously). Without Bambi more people would see deer in their true form – rats on stilts.

By: Jack Diederich

Jack Diederich — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:28:44 +0000

I grew up near Valley Forge National Park. In my youth (70s/80s) deer were not a problem. Starting in the 90s deer became, and have stayed, a big problem. People die every year in deer related accidents - including the occasional bicyclist!. According to the 2007 township minutes there were 1,100 car accidents in my township (just one township near the park) including 157 deer related accidents. My fuzzy recollection is that deer culls started to be opposed in the late 80s and early 90s, about the same time the population boomed. Hiring bow hunters on your private property was allowed but it was unpopular with the anti-culling crowd so I don't know if it is still permitted.

By: iamnotachef

iamnotachef — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:49:09 +0000

In my Northern New Jersey town we have wild turkey. And not the crappy, scrawny ones I shot in California. These are big, fat healthy looking specimens. I wonder if my neighbors would mind if I…

I wonder how many thousands of tons of venison is destroyed by cars each year? How many people could that meat feed?

The law of unintended consequences cannot be repealed, even by the good people of Boulder!