Deer By Numbers

I think by the time the City Council approved hiring sharpshooters to thin the deer herd in the Osborn Ave. area, there was general agreement that garden damage by itself was not a sufficient reason to do so. Indeed, Chief of Police Greuel and Public Information Officer Sagmeister--in almost all of their public comments on this matter--emphasize public safety, especially deer/car accidents, as the major reason for needing to sharpshoot at this time.

That's why I found it odd, when the Council was finally presented with data on deer/car accidents, to find that over the last three years the number of accidents has actually gone down. Based on what we were hearing from the police and advocates of lethal methods to control the deer population, one would have reasonably thought that the car/deer accidents had been increasing to an unmanageable size. (Indeed, I have actually become paranoid driving down 9th Ave. and other parts of the city because of the continuous insistence that we have a major deer crossing problem.). But here are the data:

*In 2006 there were 21 total car/deer accidents reported, which included 6 in the Osborn Ave. area.
*In 2007 there were 21 total car/deer accidents reported, which included 4 in the Osborn Ave. area.
*In 2008 there were 16 car/deer accidents reported, which included 2 in the Osborn Ave. area.

I don't think any of the six who voted for lethal methods would have changed their vote had we had this data earlier in January, but it does once again beg the question, as a gentlemen put it to me bluntly on the phone the other day, "what the f_ _k are you guys thinking?"

I wish I knew.