One of the most frustrating parts of last night's deer culling discussion was the inability to get reassuring information about what kinds of safety precautions will be in place when the sharpshooting begins. Essentially, we were told to trust that Urban Wildlife Specialists know what they're doing. (I didn't say it at the meeting, but as I sat there on the dais I thought, "Great, now we have faith based sharpshooting to go along with our faith based development.").
Unfortunately I was not forwarded this piece until after the meeting so could not read it during the deliberation. It says:
Hales Corners Village Trustee Dan Besson was walking through Whitnall Park one day when he heard a gunshot. He immediately fell to the ground, seeking cover
It turned out the gunfire was part of Milwaukee County's program to cull the deer herd in the park. But Besson, who lives near the park, had no idea that sharpshooters, hired on contract, were out.
Hales Corners Village President Bob Ruesch said today that as a result of that incident, the Village Board last night directed staff to work with the county to develop a better plan for notifying residents near the park when the sharpshooters will be at work.
Ruesch said there is a program in place for notifying residents, closing roads in the park and taking other precautions, but that the notification needs to be improved.
Ruesch said the sharpshooters, using bullets designed not to ricochet, typically work at the 625-acre park about one week per month in January, February and March, killing about 17 to 19 deer.
Staff is due to report back to the Village Board in two weeks, Ruesch said.
I don't mean to kick a dead deer, but it still strikes me as almost unbelievable that we could not delay this action until we could more rigorously promote and assess nonlethal means of deer management AND give the anti-culling majority more time to participate in the process.
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4 comments:
I like deer roaming around town. i do agree they are tasty and will probably hunt this coming fall. Plus it helps with The he grocery bills. As far as the sharpshooting goes, in all my life i have only met one. He is now in prison. He was a L.R.P sniper in Vietnam, with 30 kills. the people the city will use are probably weekenders and local sportsman. Not to take anything away from them but I think calling them sharpshooters is stretching things a bit.
The story leaves out if the guy was actually in any danger. If you don't expect gunshots they can be pretty scary. My understanding is many of these sharpshooters work at night with silencers to avoid frightening the public. I don't know about the ones the city will contract.
What more there is to know about non-leathal means? The DNR says they can't be relocated, so that's out. Contraception or sterilization doesn't work or is very expensive. Spraying your plants will not effect the number of deer and doesn't always curb damage. Of course even if deer numbers are reduced property owners are still going to have some damage.
Thank you, Tony for supporting us in our efforts to try to save the deer herd. You gave us the information to help us fight the fight, and kindly answered all of our questions.What will the city do when the cull is not successful-just like the Canadian geese cull in our parks was a failure. I hope another plan, more humane will be in place. I also fear that the city will have a much larger problem on their hands if a stray sharpshooter bullet causes property damage, or worse yet, injury to a resident.
I wonder if the DNR funds had not been granted to the city, would this cull have proceeded in this awful manner?
I appreciate your efforts, as do many other Oshkosh taxpayers.
... and they want to do this at night with silencers?
"Sharpshooter" is a polite term for sniper picked up during recent wars to disguise that the sniper hides under cover and shoots at unaware targets/victims.
Less important than if the shell will ricochet to my mind is the range and firepower used for this. And penetration capability.
All in all, my observations as a non-hunter should be taken in that regard. Still there seem to be significant safety issues involved in an after dark get together of gun enthusiasts.
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