Fellow activists:
On my 4th
Compassion for Animals Road Expedition (CARE-4
- see
www.HOPE-CARE.org)
covering over 30 states July through Ohio, New Jersey, Iowa, and
others, and further, the cruelty involved..
Now, I am planning
CARE-5 in order to fix it.
It will be by means of a system called
Non-Violent Human-Deer Conflict Resolution,
which includes a no-capture relocation technology invented by myself
called the Deer Auto-Conveyer (DAC
- see deer section of
www.HOPE-CARE.org).
My observations during
CARE-4 in a nut shell:
- Deer are killed in large numbers
inside the city-limits of many communities, i.e., right in
people�s backyards, from dawn to dusk including when children
are coming home from school. This is the prevailing strategy for
dealing with the general increase in white-tailed deer
population across the nation. The deer population increase is in
part artificially produced in the wild for hunting purposes
through feed-plots, and the inadvertent creation of deer habitat
through clear-cut logging and fringe suburban habitats. This
causes a rise in deer-vehicle accident (DVA) rates, and urban
deer complaints.
- Some cities expend huge amounts
in deer �culling�. Solon, OH, for example, pop. 30,000, spent
$520,000 in 2004/2005 to kill 1,000 deer using a professional
sharpshooter (Anthony DeNicola of White Buffalo Inc.). In
2006/2007, DeNicola shot another 150. DeNicola himself wrote
that culling is �like mowing lawn�, referring to that it has to
be repeated again and again. At $300 a deer, however, he has the
financial incentive to keep this piece of wisdom well hidden.
- Due to the Compensatory Rebound
Effect, which elevates the reproductive rate of a drastically
culled deer population to the point when the population could
doubt itself within 2-3 years, deer have to be shot year after
year, with no end in sight. The culling method is a
self-perpetuating cash cow for the lethal operators and their
collaborators.
- Other communities use bow-hunters
shooting with arrows, and contractors using captive-bolts. Both
methods are exceptionally cruel. Bow-hunting statistics shows
the nonfatal/fatal ratio at about 55/45, and that for every deer
killed by an arrow, an average of 17 arrows would have been
fired. Captive-bolting is the method used for killing domestic
hoofed animals, involving shooting a 4� bolt into the brain at
contact range, but captive deer struggle so violently that they
often had their legs broken and the bolts shot into their eyes.
Video evidence shows that it took over 3 minutes to kill one
thrashing net-captured deer, involving multiple bolt-shots.
- There exists a full range of
non-lethal methods and products, including deterrents and
repellents of many categories, physical barriers of many fencing
types, and contraception employing different techniques, but
they need to be used integratively in order to be fully
effective, and integrated packages or strategies are almost
non-existent.
- Fencing is a long term solution
with an upfront expense, but minimal maintenance cost from year
to year, rendering it much more economical when the up front
cost is amortized over the 25-year life expectancy of the fence.
- Even after a 50% cull, the DVA
rate of a community is reduced by little more than 25%, whereas
fencing can reduced the DVA rate by over 90%.
- Lethal methods are short-term
solutions at best, and generally knee-jerk reactions on the part
of the short-sighted, pro-killing, yet influential elements of
local governments. But their inside track is so tight that their
view - �even non-lethal strategies must contain a lethal
element� - holds sway.
No, Human-Deer Conflict resolution does
not have to involve killing or capture. All that�s needed is some
basic compassion, intelligence, foresight, tolerance and patience.
The Deer
Auto-Conveyer (DAC) merits
special mention. It is a static physical structure that employs the
deer�s natural behavior to create a dynamic one-way deer movement
from a high density area to a low-density area. A DAC comprises two
elements -
1.
twin-longitudinal fences (which could exceed a kilometer in
length) and serial lateral fences
between them, and
2. longitudinal
one-way-gates at the lateral fencing and inward
lateral one-way-gates at the
longitudinal fencing.
It does not involve harassing,
trapping, handling, tranquilizing and transporting deer in any way.
The deer will not feel any human interference from beginning to end.
And the speed of transfer can be
adjusted by a number of easily controlled factors such as the width
of the longitudinal fenced channel, the number of lateral fences and
the number of one-way gates per unit length of longitudinal and
lateral fencing, and with food. The speed can be so finely tuned to
achieve a certain desirable and stabilized deer density.
Since the Deer
Auto-Conveyer (DAC) involves
fencing, it could be combined with otherwise recommended
road-fencing (for reducing DVAs), and save on cost on both counts.
In CARE-5,
When I come to a city (if it is on the itinerary), I will:
1. conduct a background study of the
city in terms of its geography, demographics, ecology and extant
human-deer relations;
2. conduct a ground tour of the city
and evaluate its suitability for a DAC;
3. hold meetings with local businesses
dealing in non-lethal technologies;
4. give a presentation to the local
animal advocacy community;
5. give a differently toned
presentation to the local government in a boardroom setting.
A local event host, a volunteer local
tour-guide and free billeting will be greatly appreciated.
CARE-5 Preliminary itinerary:
CA
2007-07-15 - 2007-07-25
(AR Conference July
19-23 -
www.ARConference.org)
NV
2007-07-26
UT
2007-07-27
MT
2007-07-29 (mule deer)
States with
White-tailed deer below:
ND
2007-08-01
MN
2007-08-02
IA
2007-08-06
WI
2007-08-08
IL
2007-08-12
IN
2007-08-16
MI
2007-08-20
OH
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
NJ
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
PA
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
DE
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
NY
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
CT
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
RI
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
MA
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
NH
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
VT
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
WV
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
MD
2007-08-24 - 2007-10-31
VA
2007-11-01
NC
2007-11-05
SC
2007-11-09
GA
2007-11-12
TN
2007-11-16
AR
2007-11-20
TX
2007-11-23
I look forward hearing from you and working with you.
Anthony Marr, founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.DeerOptions.com
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
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