Re: Large buck kills dog at Oak Bay residence, Oak Bay News, Sept. 23
It’s unfortunate that CHEK TV did not air the DeerSafe spokesperson’s expression of sympathy for the loss of little Ollie. It should not come as a surprise that members of a deer advocacy group also value other animals. We also love our pets and many of us have also experienced gut-wrenching losses, many due to careless drivers or poison.
I was sad to read that Heather feels her neighbourhood is “peppered with silly deer crossing signs.” Public education concerning the changing dynamic of wildlife interactions on southern Vancouver Island as development grows exponentially is long overdue. Wildlife behaves to accommodate our advances, and they do not understand our imaginary borders. They are tolerating us, why can’t we live with them? As an added benefit of the deer warning signs erected on the properties of caring citizens, we may well see fewer fatalities for the neighbourhood’s cats and dogs as drivers are reminded to slow down.
No child has been killed by deer in the history of this country. They are in danger, however, of learning that violence will solve conflict if deer killing becomes accepted in our communities. If the adults in their lives are golf-club wielding, rock-throwing, fear-mongering people who set their dogs on deer, there isn’t much hope for a reasoned society.
In the words of Pope Francis “our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings.”
Kelly Carson
DeerSafe
