To: Mayor De Gross
Moreland Hills, OH
Re: Bow Hunting in Moreland Hills, OH
Dear Mayor De Gross,
I'm writing first to thank you for your time on the phone with me
this morning, and to express my appreciation for your credible sincerity
in a few points that you made, including the "enormous amounts" of money
spent, or rather, misspent, in Solon and Pepper Pike in sharpshooting
and captive-bolting deer within their communities, as well as, between
the lines, of your being more sympathetic in the cause of the Ohio
activists "than you think".
I would just like to take this opportunity to summarize my own
points, as follows, so that they be on record:
1. Mass killing deer is NOT the effective method to reduce
deer-vehicle accident (DVA) rates. Statistics aplenty attest to the fact
that even culling in excess of 50% of the deer population would not
reduce the DVA rate by much more than 25%. Insurance company data from
across the nation unequivocally pinpoint the day of the highest DVA rate
in any given year to be the opening day of the deer hunting season in
any given state, and show that the two deer-hunting months November and
December account for over 50% of the DVAs anywhere in any given year. On
the other hand, if fencing and/or effective Strieter lights were used,
which is a one time expense with a life expectancy of up to 25 years
with minimal annual maintenance (instead of sharpshooting and/or
captive-bolting year after year at considerable cost), can reduce the
DVA rate by over 90%.
2. Likewise, culling by whatever means cannot and will not
significantly reduce the backyard-complaints, whereas fencing the garden
or using effective deer repellents can and will.
3. Hunting being a cruel hobby unfit for a kinder and gentler
century, bow hunting is the cruelest form of them all. Statistics also
have it that the killing/wounding rate for bow-hunting is about 50/50,
meaning that for every 100 deer killed by arrows, another hundred
stagger around in the woods with arrows embedded in non-vital parts of
their bodies for days, weeks or even months on end. One deer in Iowa,
now named Braveheart, survived for 10 months with an arrow wound; by the
time it finally succumbed, it was a walking skeleton. And after the
wounded deer have finally succumbed, 200 deer would have died. Also, for
every deer killed by arrows, some 15 arrows would have have fired, or
misfired.
4. According to the Quality Deer Management Association's website
(see maps on the page
http://www.i-maps.com/Qdma/frame/default1024_ie.asp?C=48449&LinkID=0&NID=0&cmd=map&TL=100000&GL=010100&MF=11000),
Ohio has a very low deer population density, absolutely as well as
relative to the surrounding states. Even if culling is justifiable as a
means of deer population control, it is not called for anywhere in Ohio.
5. The safety factor: If, in the case of the Chagrin/Chagrin
out-of-season bow-hunting, a frightened or wounded deer dashes across
either Chagrin road, causing a DVA, and, God forbid, a fatal one, or if
some innocent passerby gets shot by a stray arrow, who will bear the
responsibility? On whose desk will the buck (no pun intended) stop? I'm
afraid that by Truman's formula of "the buck stops here", in Moreland
Hills, this desk would be the mayor's.
6. As in point #1, likewise for the Chagrin/Chagrin case, if the
reason for the shooting privilege is deer damage to the garden, again,
shooting deer is not the answer, because neighboring deer will move in
to fill the void, and he will have to shoot again and again year round.
The solution is to fence his property and/or use effective deer
repellents.
I hope that the next piece of news in this regard will be that the
special bow-hunting privilege granted to this party, for whatever
reason, will be revoked, and further, that bow-hunting be forever banned
in Moreland Hills.
Sincerely yours,
Anthony Marr, Founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
Vancouver, BC, Canada
604-222-1169
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