I attended a Colts Neck township meeting several weeks ago to hear about their proposal to allow hunting of deer at a distance of 150 feet from a building, rather than the current 450- foot requirement.
Thankfully the Township Committee voted down the ordinance until further consideration. I am writing this letter because some of the reasons given by those in favor of the proposal are not unique to Colts Neck, and in my opinion, also need rethinking.
One reason was the number of accidents involving deer. As I was driving to the meeting that evening, I purposely drove slowly because I know there are deer in the area.
Unless Colts Neck officials intend to kill every last deer in the township, they will never be able to give people the guarantee that a deer won’t be crossing the road.
At the meeting, an incident from another town was cited in which a school bus driver swerved to prevent hitting a deer, causing six children to go to the hospital. What if the bus driver swerved to prevent hitting another car? Would cars have to be eliminated? The bigger question is: were the children wearing seat belts?
Lyme disease was mentioned. It is unfortunate that the “Black Legged ticks” are given the nicknames “deer ticks” rather than “mammal ticks,” since they attach to many animals — dogs, cats, deer, squirrels, fox, humans, etc.
The deer did not create the ticks — they are victims of them, too. Eliminating deer will not eliminate all the ticks. Ticks need to be dealt with as a separate entity. Finally, the last point I will address is that of “property” damage by deer. Property ownership is a human legal concept, and thus should only be used as an argument against other humans, not against wild animals. Your yard is their yard, too.
Humans claim “ownership” to too much of the land, including huge, fenced-in areas, and it is time to give back.
The next time you want to complain about deer eating some of your twigs or plants in the back yard, think about the aisles and aisles and tons and tons of food available to you at any hour of the day, while deer are scavenging to try to prevent starving to death, and ask yourself how humans can be so self-centered.
I like shrubs and pretty flowers, too. I believe the solution is to have some plants available in the yard for the deer to eat (for example, mix white clover into your grass seed, plant fruit-bearing trees, don’t rake away acorns, provide a spot in the yard for vegetable scraps, etc.) and then buy a bottle of “Deer Out,” a safe and effective peppermint-based repellent for your other plants.
Intolerance of other humans based on race, religion, etc., is now considered deplorable. It is time for humans to step it up a notch and evolve into a species where intolerance of wild animals is also unacceptable.
Dawn Zelinski
Middletown