I think people need to put the issue of habituated deer into perspective. There are two points I would like to make in response to A. Black’s letter to the editor.
1. Tranquilizing ungulates is far riskier than most people know. Their rapid heartbeat and high-strung nature make it difficult to calibrate the amount required to subdue the animal without killing it. Should the deer survive the tranquilizing and relocation trauma, they will inevitably return to urban areas because they are habituated. Don’t idealize it. Your Coldstream neighbourhood is no longer a wildlife refuge.
Why do we have coyotes and cougars in the city? Because this is where the prey is. Why do we have bears in the city? Because people leave fallen fruit and bagged garage out to tempt them.
This isn’t rocket science, people.
2. More deer and wildlife in general are killed on B.C. highways every week than are killed in urban areas to remove habituated deer in a year.
I don’t hear much moaning and crying about that problem from “conservationists.”
Eighty per cent of wildlife vehicle collisions involve deer. Death and injury to people as an outcome of these collisions is also a serious concern.
I suggest you visit this website for more information if you are in doubt: www.wildlifecollisions.ca/thefacts.htm
If you are truly concerned about the welfare of habituated deer, ignore the Bambi eyes and stop treating them like characters in a theme park.
Remove whatever food sources that tempt them into your yard. Chase them out rather than try to pet them.
Do not believe that simply moving them somewhere else (my yard in a rural community? Thanks a lot) will solve the problem. You just made it someone else’s problem.
The only other solution is to move out of their traditional territory. Are you willing to do that?
Brenda Giesbrecht
Falkland
