Solon Deer - What are the facts?
I've been seeing some lawn signs posted around Solon with "No Hunting" and the web address SolonDeer.com.I checked out the site. I disagree with them though.The premise of the no hunting crew is basically the Bambi syndrome -- that killing Bambi is just plain wrong. Preserving the deer at the cost of everything else is just plain stupid.Over the time we've been here we've noticed less diversity of the wildlife around here. We're seeing fewer squirrels and other small critters like groundhogs.We've also seen deer eating the "deer resistant" plants -- these plants will actually make them sick. The fact that there's so little forage around that the deer are eating poison is very telling. Note: we're not complaining that the deer are eating our landscaping, but rather pointing out what the deer are eating.We've also talked to the rangers in the Metroparks about various forms deer control they've tried. They said in no uncertain terms that the controls that they've tried like the much talked about birth control and they reported that not only is it too hard to do, it's hadn't been effective.Not only that but they were also talking about other problems that are coming to the fore like chronic wasting disease which is the deer equivalent of mad cow disease or Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans. On top of that they also pointed out that the tree bark was being used for food which is an indication that there's not nearly enough food for the deer in the area.This all just gets back to the problem: we have too many deer. We've eliminated the predators. Not the biggest predator is our cars.We broke the environment.We have the responsibility to to fix it.