Letters to the Editor, Sept. 15

Photo reminds us of our heritage
To the editor:

Congratulations for putting on the front page Mark Czajkowski’s photograph of a squirrel eating a slice of pizza (The Packet, Sept. 12). And congratulations to Mark Czajkowski for this remarkable photograph.
   The first pizzeria in America was founded in 1905 by Gennara Lombardi in New York’s Lower Manhattan. It was called Pizzeria Napoletana in honor of the Neapolitan roots of the tomato pie according to the May 2006 American Heritage magazine. So, let’s congratulate ourselves on our Italian heritage.
Carl Faith
Longview Drive
Princeton
School teams up with Arts Council
To the editor:

Princeton Junior School was very pleased to be a host site again for the Arts Council of Princeton Summer Camp.
   As a close neighbor, we have the highest regard for the staff and programs of the Arts Council of Princeton. The summer camp was well organized and fully subscribed.
   We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Arts Council by helping to extend opportunities in the arts to the local community.
Peter Y. Rapelye
Headmaster
Princeton Junior School
Fackler Road
Lawrence
State doesn’t want to control deer
To the editor:

Scientific data, and not a spinning of the facts by hunters, is what the public needs to be informed.
   It is not difficult to see how the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife works to keep the deer inventory high. The state needs to keep a high deer inventory for economic reasons. It is the deer-inventory restoration projects that ultimately harm New Jersey’s suburban communities.
   For many decades, the game code was constructed for "maximum sustainable deer population." Buck season was the focus because deer are polygamist creatures even a few remaining bucks could continue to impregnate the remaining does. Thus, hunting bucks would have little impact on the deer population.
   How about the 1963 "Doe Day" that started the antlerless deer controversy in New Jersey? It revealed how farmers wanted deer management to genuinely lower deer numbers because of crop depredation. Hunters opposed it they wanted deer managed for maximum replenishing for hunting.
   Farmers lease wildlife management areas with the caveat that they leave 15 percent of their crops unharvested as deer/wildlife food. They are creating an artificial food supply to keep deer optimally healthy, well nourished and proliferating at maximum capacity. There is a special use permit/letter of agreement with the policies.
   Indeed, we actually seem to want to increase our deer population. A Hunterdon County freeholder and state assemblywoman was recently quoted in the Hunterdon County Democrat as saying, "The state Department of Environmental Protection has twice imported deer from other states to increase the white-tailed deer herd here."
   It has been said that immunocontraception is not an effective tool for wildlife management, but recent studies with free-ranging white-tail deer, California ground squirrels, captive Norway rats, domestic and feral swine and wild horses have demonstrated the efficacy of the single-shot GnRH vaccine as a contraceptive agent.
   Infertility among treated female swine and white-tailed deer, for example, lasted up to two years without requiring a booster vaccination. Ongoing studies are examining the practicality of administering GonaCon to free-ranging white-tailed deer as well as the efficacy, toxicity and safety of the vaccine. A pivotal field study under way in Maryland and New Jersey is evaluating the efficacy of GonaCon as a contraceptive agent for free-ranging female white-tailed deer under field conditions.
   In the Aug. 18 edition of The Star Ledger, there is an article on this immunocontraception study finding the vaccine has a 30 percent failure rate but a 30 percent failure rate means a 70 percent success rate. Most FDA-approved drugs on the market only have an efficacy rate of 70-80 percent, so a 70 percent success rate is right within an expected range. Indeed, cancer drugs can have an efficacy rate as low as 25 percent.
   Yes, there are residents that are greatly annoyed by deer. But those residents would be best served by directing their anger toward the Division of Fish and Wildlife. The Division of Fish and Wildlife has been totally ineffective at reducing the population of deer in this state because, frankly, they don’t want to.
Rose Reina-Rosenbaum
Hillsborough