Thursday, March 31, 2011

Attention, residents: Solon will start deer culling again.

Solon will once again be rolling out the red carpet for their wildlife deer assassin, Anthony DeNicola, president of White Buffalo.

Here it is, year number 5, in the two-year deer management plan and Solon officials have deemed this ethical travesty a success.

I find it abhorrent that Solon officials define success as a high body count. I find it equally abhorrent that Solon has added annual deer slaughter to its list of the mundane winter schedule -i.e., snow plowing, salting streets, slaughtering deer, putting up Christmas lights, etc. with such thoughtlessness and ruthlessness. Who is representing the moral majority?

Since the decision makers rubber stamp the continued slaughter, without putting any additional measures in place, we are on the predicted treadmill of slaughter.

Why would Solon, in these economical times, be so willing to throw good money after bad? I think it's fair for residents to assume that this will be a perpetual expenditure that can't even be justified as paying for itself.

I'll remember this when I go to the voting polls next fall.

Carol Starcher
2008

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Don't Mess with Deer

http://www.cleveland.com/forums/solon/index.ssf?artid=37219

4498.6. Behind the scenes at the secret deer planning workshop

by solonjoe3, 02/09/11 9:23 AM
Re: Friends, you gotta read. PB by butdad, 02/09/11 9:23 AM

Stanek: I’ve asked White Buffalo to come and present their comprehensive management plan for our review. But before I give them the floor, let me say a few things first. You guys are driving me crazy. Save the deer. Kill the deer. Captive bolts. Birth control. Catch and release. Crossbows. Introduce wolves. And now there is even talk of lassoing deer and raising them like livestock. We need you guys to shut up.

We had a perfectly good plan with the sharpshooters and you shut it down. Now it is going to cost us a lot more to start it back up. This is bad planning. Worse still, all the crazies are going to show up at meetings and start calling everybody Bambi killers. That is no way to run a city. We professionals are supposed to make all decisions in secret and you political guys are supposed to pass them on the consent agenda. What were you people thinking?



McDrucker: I’m sorry, this one is mainly on me. I shouldn’t have pulled the program for year. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Frankland: That’s the problem with you elected officials. You think you can make decision on your own. Let us professionals do the deciding. I’m shocked after all the years of training you had under Patton you would come out and make such a rookie mistake. It’s going to cost all of us.

Weber: Speaking in financial terms, your mistake was expensive. By skipping a year, the extra cost is going to cut into the Christmas party fund. Instead of Champagne we may have to make do with Hawaiian punch and Everclear.

Pelunis: I warned her. But would she listen no? She just had a Kraus moment. Couldn’t keep her big mouth shut.

McDrucker: Ok, ok everybody. I learned my lesson. I won’t make any more decisions. So what do we do?

Stanek: We hire white buffalo back, that’s what we do. And we shut up about the crossbows.

Russo: Crossbows are cheaper.

Stanek: Look buddy, I don’t tell you how to do your job, so stop telling us how to do ours. Crossbows mean public debate. WE DON’T LIKE PUBLIC DEBATE. It makes folks start asking questions and I want to keep my city car. So just sit on your hands and let us tell you how to vote, ok?

Russo: Ok.

Richmond: I don’t see why we can’t discuss it.

Lobe: Lady, I don’t know how the heck you got appointed, but it was obviously a mistake. Either you play ball or nobody is going to pick up your trash for the next six months.

Frankland: And I’ll have more inspectors at your house than you can shake a stick at.

Stanek: Ok. White Buffalo, you have the floor.



Here's what started it...

http://www.cleveland.com/forums/solon/index.ssf?artid=37202

4498. Friends, you gotta read. PB
by butdad, 02/08/11 7:21 PM

I figured a few folks would enjoy a laugh.

Why we shoot deer in the wild

(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this).

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back.. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope.

The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope .., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity.. A deer -- no Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when . I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go.

A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work.. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God...

An Educated Farmer

Friday, March 25, 2011

20-Year Integrated “Deer Management” Plan


Dear Editor: 

Regarding my “preliminary deer management plan” mentioned in your article titled [Foes cry, but city will seek culling bids] (Sept. 21, 2006),

I’m writing give a more complete picture of it. Culling deer as a means to reduce deer-vehicle accidents is turning neighbor against neighbor and Solon against itself. It is traumatizing children when they witness deer being killed before their eyes in the backyard next door. It is short term at best and makes little sense in the long run. 

As the contract shooter himself said, “Culling deer is like mowing lawn,” meaning that, due to the compensatory rebound effect of deer population, the killing has to be repeated year after year, at about $250,000 a year. Over 10 years, this would cost Solon $2.5 million, and over 20 years, $5 million, not counting inflation. And after all this expenditure, Solon would still be back at Square One, with nothing to show for it. 

All this lowers the deer-vehicle accident (DVA) rate by a mere 25%. On the other hand, if fencing is used, at about $6,000 per mile of fencing, a $250,000 upfront investment would endow Solon with 40 miles of deer-proof fencing, lowering the DVAs to near zero. The life expectancy of a woven wire and/or high tensile wire fence is about 25 years. It is a one-time expense that can solve the DVA problem for over 20 years in one go, with minimal maintenance. 

Other than along high-DVA roadways, the fencing could also skirt the rear of the deer-affected properties, thus keeping deer out of gardens. In addition, there is a full range of other deer repellents (chemical, acoustic, visual and biological). 

In addition to fencing, Strieter Lights have been proven effective in numerous other places (e.g. 40,000 installed since 1980 in British Columbia). The deer will find their own population equilibrium behind the fence by birth-rate adjustment and emigration. 

Most people in Solon or elsewhere do not want deer killed unnecessarily, especially by inhumane means. It is physically impossible for any shooter to make good the one-bullet-in-the-brain-per-deer promise. Many deer have been observed to be body-shot, and shot multiple times. 

Finally, the safety factor. With shooting occurring in over 70 kill-sites within city limits, often within yards of a neighbor’s house, accidents can happen. With all the available alternatives that are safer and less expensive, is Solon City Council willing to accept the responsibility for someone accidentally shot or, God forbid, killed? 

As they are well aware from DVAs, accidents do happen. 

Anthony Marr, founder Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE) 
4118 West 11th Ave., 
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6R 2L6 

Two Days Makes a Difference

http://www.cleveland.com/forums/solon/index.ssf?extlink?artid=38106


4594. 

Two Days Makes a Difference

by SolonDeer, 03/20/11 1:02 AM
In the Solon Times - Despite 'sticker shock' aerial deer count planned 03/16/2011

http://www.chagrinvalleytimes.com/NC/0/2903.html

Councilman William I. Russo said the aerial count "is something that's needed just to make sure the deer count has grown. "If there is no increase in deer count, then there is no justification for doing anything," he said 

Yet on 03/18 Russo along with the rest of council voted to proceed with the deer management plan without this count! What a difference two days makes!

Apparently the week started with Russo sure the aerial study would pass, who would even know about the secret last minute meeting early Friday morning.

Well the Patch was on it and blew the whistle: http://bit.ly/hh50a7 which drew lots of comments and an update immediately after the meeting. Hmmm...

http://solondeer.blogspot.com/2011/03/news-mar-2011.html

http://solondeer.com/

History Lesson

4576.2. 

...HISTORY LESSON...

by frankbam, 03/11/11 3:09 PM 
Re: Deer Management by SolonDeer, 03/11/11 3:09 PM
..in the old west men drove horse and wagon around hawking miracle cures..that probably contained booze and laudanum...today they drive an SUV, make power point presentations, selling streighter lights, proper garden plantings and deer condoms...GO FIGURE..

4576.2.1. 

Or more realistically

by SolonDeer, 03/11/11 6:29 PM 
Re: Deer Management by SolonDeer, 03/11/11 6:29 PM
and relavent to the Wed Safety Meeting, a Hunter goes to the library, learns powerpoint and then comes to tell us that the ONLY solution is more hunting. Sure there's rebound, all the more reason to hunt more. Is it effective? Sure as long as you keep ponying up $200K per year.

Oh by the way where does Scott Peters get most of his funding - HUNTING LICENCES. And here's hunting apologist Russo saying "well you have to get your funding from somewhere".

Can you spell "conflict of interest", apparently not.

Talk about snake oil salesmen, who would buy that crap, most of Solon I guess. Can you pay my share of the $200K every year, because I'm just not that gullible.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Settle Dispute at Ballot Box

In Feburary, the Solon Times commented that the Deer Management Issue should be put on the Ballot...

=== ADD SUMMARY ===

ST Editorial 110224


I'd agree with one notable addition.  For too long residents have been fed propaganda that

  • we have a deer problem
  • we must do something
  • that something involves killing deer

The residents need to be educated that we don't have to kill deer, there are low cost, effective, non-lethal alternatives.

What do you think...  Comment here...

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Dissecting an Editorial

Let's take a closer look at the Sun Editorial published here.

"Whether Solon residents favor deer culling methods or not, they should all agree on one thing: The deer population in the city is growing and it needs to be managed in some fashion."


Why do we need to agree it needs to be "managed", wildlife was managed for millennia by nature without the need for human help.


A hastily-arranged proposal to permit bowhunting in the city this winter was wisely nixed. 


True


Bowhunting would have been limited to Grantwood Golf Course, one of the few wide open tracts of land in the city, contrary to the fears of some that it would have taken place in densely-populated neighborhoods. 


False, the pilot program was to be limited to a few properties during the pilot and would have expanded city wide.  Stanek said the safe area could be much smaller than 5 acres.


However, little thought was put into the overall plan and it was being rushed through at the end of the season as if city officials were suddenly made aware that there is an overpopulation of deer and something has to be done about it immediately.


True


Ever since the culling program with White Buffalo was terminated, it stood to reason that the deer population would start to grow. 


Maybe, but animal populations have leveled off without human intervention in the past.  With no count, this is only conjecture.


How much it has grown is unknown, and we are glad to see that Solon is looking to get the most accurate count it can of its deer population before taking any further steps.


Old News, Solon is going ahead without the count


We are also glad to see city officials are willing to listen to several options beyond simply culling the herd. If the method is legal in the state, as Councilman William Russo noted, the city will consider it as it tries to create a comprehensive deer management plan.


False, from a person who clearly won't "tolerate" views that differ from his own.  


As for legality, isn't it strange that two very viable non-lethal alternatives (contraception and capture & release) have been outlawed by the ODNR who receives its funding from special hunting interests.


We agree with Andy Montoney, regional director of wildlife services for the USDA, who told Solon City Council’s Safety Committee, “No single technology or tool is going to solve your situation.” He is right when he says the city must have a “whole toolbag” of different options such as fencing, education and population management. 


Doesn't jibe with their record which is one of killing and lip service to non-lethal options.  They mention non-lethal options and then quickly tell you what's wrong with them.


Each option in and of itself will not keep the deer herd in check, but used together, the city will be able to do a better job of keeping the deer population from getting out of hand.


Who's keeping human excess "in check"?


The important thing that everyone involved in this discussion must remember is that emotions cannot play a role in the process. It is very easy for the subject of deer management to become an emotional one, but that cannot be allowed to happen. 


Too late, we hear fictional tales of "deer attacks" and other propaganda to justify bringing back the failed experiment of "managing nature".


Few people are thrilled with the prospect of killing deer 


Really! Haven't seen the web sites where the hunters revel in their killing.


and everyone involved with fashioning this deer management plan is looking for humane methods to accomplish this.


The people who are looking into this enjoy hunting in their spare time and have been ignoring non-lethal methods.


We hope that Solon officials recognize the emotional nature of this issue and develop a thorough plan that will keep the deer population under control and will not rely simply on sharpshooting or bowhunting. 


If it weren't for the activists, that's all we'd get killing and more killing.


We hope that activists realize, however, that either sharpshooting or bowhunting is a necessary method to keep the population in check because non-lethal methods alone will not work.


We hope the hunters realize that we are onto their failed experiment and that we'd like to move into the 21st century with more enlightened approaches to our coexistence with the Earth.


That’s what we think. 


You call this "thinking"?


Share your opinion on this editorial or other topics by sending a letter to the editor to rjablonski@sunnews.com, faxing your letter to (216) 986-2340 or mailing it to Ray Jablonski, Sun News East Group editor, 5510 Cloverleaf Parkway, Cleveland, Ohio 44125. All letters must include the author’s name, city and a daytime phone number for verification and must be no more than 300 words in length.


Share your views here by commenting to this post and to the editorial here.

Sun Editorial

The Solon Sun wrote an editorial on the deer culling issue, the Solon Patch asked for comments on the editorial here.

Whether Solon residents favor deer culling methods or not, they should all agree on one thing: The deer population in the city is growing and it needs to be managed in some fashion.
...
The important thing that everyone involved in this discussion must remember is that emotions cannot play a role in the process. It is very easy for the subject of deer management to become an emotional one, but that cannot be allowed to happen. Few people are thrilled with the prospect of killing deer and everyone involved with fashioning this deer management plan is looking for humane methods to accomplish this. We hope that Solon officials recognize the emotional nature of this issue and develop a thorough plan that will keep the deer population under control and will not rely simply on sharpshooting or bowhunting. We hope that activists realize, however, that either sharpshooting or bowhunting is a necessary method to keep the population in check because non-lethal methods alone will not work.

John 1:46pm on Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Deer Advocates are dismissed as "emotional" and Hunting interests are deemed "rational" and nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that Hunting causes rebound which causes more hunting (and more hunting licenses that fund the deer management (hunter) professionals, that's scientific and financial fact not emotion, its proved out that after five years we "have to do something" ignoring the fact that deer can't and never have, grown in population without limits.

Both local newspapers have a penchant for taking both sides of a particular issue without making any sense, their editorials sound much more political than principled. This editorial is no exception, a load of political nonsense, taking both sides, with dubious "facts".

As for looking for humane methods, they aren't looking too hard, in fact they are ignoring those experts in favor of hunting interests, but then if you look closely at the recreational pursuits of those at city hall you'll find far more people who shoot with a weapon than those that shoot with a camera (as I do).

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Solon Joe's

4583. Executive session?
by solonjoe3, 03/14/11 9:12 AM

Vice Mayor Krooks: ... Ok, that bring us to deer culling. Councilman Ramone has an interesting idea about using croquet mallets.

Councilwoman VeryRichMond: Mallets? You can’t be serious about croquet mallets?

Councilman Ramone: One hit on the noggin and they are out like a light. What could be more humane? Besides they are rats.

Vice Mayor Krooks: Let’s not debate how we kill them. Let’s debate how many we should kill. Let’s not even debate whether or not they are rats. Let’s instead talk about who to give the contract to and how they will make it worth our while.

Councilwoman VeryRichMond: Well, I surveyed my residents and they are opposed to croquet mallets 87% to 46%-- that is, if I don’t count all people who wanted to answer the survey different than me. Totals can add up to more than 100% if you don’t use excel.

Councilwoman Meaningless: I’m just pleased as punch that you all invited me to these meetings. Is it time for me to abstain yet?

Councilman Moonbeam: We have the money in the capital budget, although as a recurring expense it really doesn’t belong on that ledger, but nevertheless the money is cooked in, so I say we spend it.

Councilman Peanuts: I don’t understand why we have to spend public dollars on things like this.

Councilman Moonbeam: As I’ve tried to explain to you, if we don’t spend all the money we take in, residents will expect us to give some of it back.

Mayor McDrucker: She serves at my pleasure. They all serve at my pleasure. I will not tolerate leaks.

Vice Mayor Krooks: White buffalo has a very attractive offer. Campaign donations, kickbacks, and free venison stew. I don’t see anybody topping that….

Councilwoman Meaningless: I abstain.

Mayor McDrucker: And how do we know Sally wasn’t one of the many leakers?

Councilwoman VeryRichMond: I suppose if we padded the mallets, they wouldn’t hurt as much….

Councilman Ramone: That’s what I was trying to tell you. Whack! One blow. They won’t feel a thing.

Councilwoman Meaningless: I abstain.

Councilman Moonbeam: How much do these mallets cost? We have to be sure to spend the entire budget.

Counting Deer

To the Editor:

On Sept. 20, the city of Grand Haven held a special City Council work session, explaining the results of the spring's white-tailed deer spotlight survey. The survey was conducted by volunteers from Grand Valley State University's' Biology Department. This survey used the same route through and around the city on four different nights, over a 26-day time period. Spotlighting was conducted on April 21, 27; and May 4 and 16. A total of 76 deer were seen on these four nights.

We were told that the deer density for the area survey is 21.7 deer per square mile. The biology department believes that 50 percent of these deer were does. That each would produce at least one fawn each year,  increasing the population by 50 percent in just one year.

If, we are to believe this 50 percent population increase, then does that mean that in five years there will be 564 in our city per mile square? If this is true and if nature doesn't or hasn't in the past
taken care of deer population increases, then why aren't there 9,000 or 10,000 deer in the city now? (Because, of the continuous 50 percent increase in population over the last 10 or 12 years to date.)

The part that gets me, if you drive the same route at about the same  time on four different nights over 26 days, as the surveyors did, isn't  it possible that the same deer was counted two, three and even four
 times? Think about it, if you counted school children during recess  playing in a school play area four different days, wouldn't you be  counting some more than once?

 I believe GVSU's rowing team could have conducted a more accurate deer  count survey. I'm sure they would have limited their survey to one  night. Having a dozen two-man teams assigned to certain areas each,  spotlighting at the same time. This would eliminate counting the same deer, giving a more accurate count.

The next scheduled survey will be conducted this October and November.  It is understood that the spotlighting will repeatedly occur along the same route as before, on multiple nights, with emphasis on the back yards of certain residences who are calling to complain the most. I understand that one homeowner has called some 25 times since city deer have become a target. If they spotlight these yards five or six different nights won't they be counting some of the same deer? I wish we
would number the deer like in the cartoon by Kevin Collier on Sept. 23, then people would understand what I'm trying to say. I believe we all have more important problems to take up our time. Like fixing this great country of ours: by voting for freedom in November, not socialism.

 — Bob DeHare, Grand Haven