People still own computers?? I never understood cries like this on an open discussion board. No one is being rude, no one is swearing, no one is attacking anyone else personally. What's the problem?? What does the site exist for if not discussion/debate?? How many freakin' "which how should I buy?" threads can you read man. Or maybe we are all just supposed to agree on everything. That sounds scintillating.
Covey........I'm on my iPhone (at work) I'm not ignoring you but I can't navigate a reply to a post that long on a phone. I'm working back to back overnights and then off to camp for 3 days of muzzleloader so I'll either try to break it down or grab my iPad before heading to camp.
This will be my last post on this topic. It's pretty obvious you are right and anyone that hasn't lived 30 years + in your particular subdivision doesn't understand suburban hunting. All areas are not created equal, what you experienced while nurturing and raising your "pets" isn't the reality of every set of suburban woods. You didn't hunt the deer that you cared and provided for, but if someone else did then they are scum of the earth because you created that deer's lack of survival skills? Here in IL residents are not allowed to feed deer. They still do in these suburban environments and do so without fear of repricussions. Several years ago a mostly white deer named "Al" was killed by an out of towner. He was crucified by some of the locals and a lot of hoopla in the local papers about it. He took it legally, yet they were upset about it being killed because it was like a pet and they fed it daily. While this isn't the albino deer thread, it is fitting under this thread. The residents are the ones that got that deer killed for taking away it's natural instincts of survival. Like it or not, that deer did not, nor does any deer, belong to the people as they felt it did. It is a state and sometimes federally regulated game species. State laws forbid the residents from feeding them, yet they did so anyway. They should have all been fined and the DNR should have held them to the same standards we hunters are held to. Confiscation of items and all. Suburban deer are no different than deer deep in the woods of a 30,000 acre plot. They are still wild by nature, but intrusion by people wanting to live among them have forced them to adapt. When people start feeding them and trying to raise them as pets is when they stop being deer and start becoming possessions. When their population is not allowed to be controlled is when they get out of hand and become nuisances. That is when they need to be controlled, so yes suburban hunting should be allowed and it will be continued to be without your blessing. A plot of land large enough to sustain a herd of deer is large enough to be regulated through hunting. Most suburban sites will have special draws, a quota for permits and often times higher standards by the hunter(special training etc.).
That's alright, don't worry about it. I'm done in this thread anyway. I think everything that there is to be said on both sides of the debate has pretty much been said and I'm bored with it and evidently the rest of the forum is more than done with it anyway. Thanks for the lively discussion and I respectfully wish you a good evening.
Atlas, give this article a read.. Gives his reasoning for passing the deer. Why you should thank the hunter that shot the albino buck | Josh Gowan Outdoors
If the intent was "herd management" like the article suggests, why would he pass on it for several years? Ive already said I have no problem with a legal deer being taken (white, brown or pink). But sighting to shake his hand for managing the herd? Come on. Shake his hand for killing a cool buck. Who knows if the hunter even knows anything about herd management.
Did you read the same article I read? Where did the article suggest it ("it" being killing this albino buck) was herd management? The guy passed it because he was asked to let it go, then was asked to take it and it took three years to get another chance at it. The author of the article points out that albinism isn't a genetically desirable or noble trait and points out the problems with it and then goes on to tell the perfect points about the history of conservation and the direct link between hunters and conservation. I don't see anyone suggesting the hunter passed or took that buck with any particular interest in herd management in mind. Read the article for how it's literally written and be mindful of inserting extra stuff into a subtext.
I can understand the fact that people view some deer as their pets. That is everywhere not just the suburbs. I enjoy watching deer in my front yard as well. But we have to give them credit deer are not dumb animals. Aside from that I wanted to make the point that urban hunting is better than some alternatives used today. For instance Princeton, NJ hires contractors with military grade weapons to come in and manage the herd. They put out piles of corn and sit at night with small caliber silenced weapons and thermal scopes. Before dawn the deer are all gathered up and carted to the local dump to be deposed of because the funding does not allow the processing for the hungry. As many as 300 a night were taken. Does that impact the decision at all?
I couldn't agree more. I exclusively hunt suburban areas where, most of the time, I can see houses or atleast roof tops or something. I am invited there by the land owner because they have an over abundance of deer and want the population thinned out. I don't "force my way into their lives". I may have asked for permission and if they said no, I politely said thank you and walked away. I would say atleast 1/2 of my private land, suburban areas I hunt, I was approached by the land owner first. Many of the places we hunt, the neighbors will talk to the land owner weeks, months later and find out we were hunting. Their reaction is always the same.. "I never even noticed or heard them!" Myself and my hunting buddies pride ourselves in getting in/out with out diturbing the land owners, or especially their neighbors. We will go out of our way to be quiet and certainly to avoid anyone seeing a dead deer being dragged or loaded into a truck. As any hunter knows, 1 decent rain, the blood trail is gone. In most cases, if you are not looking.. you will walk right past a blood trail, even in ideal conditions. Fielding dressing deer.. any woods I have ever been in, there were foxes, racoons and other creatures that would make short work of that field dressings and it makes a good meal for them to prepare for winter. Anti-hunters have this vision of a mass murder crime scene with blood all over the trees and in the leaves dripping down.. just not the case. I live in central MD, where hunting is not as popular or the way of life like it was when I grew up in PA. I have had people flip me the bird, had 1 lady roll her window down and yell "murderer!" at me.. but I have equal or better number of people tell me "thank you" and "there are way too many deer".
