Dear Editor:
So Cal Winter thinks he has this deer hunting thing all figured out.
It's all the deer hunter's fault that deer run out onto highways and into traffic causing accidents. Really? There's no other reason?
Deer are wild animals and they don't know they are supposed to stay in the woods. They move around everyday looking for food. Deer mainly feed at night, unless of course a big storm is coming. Then you will see them during daylight hours.
They also move around during breeding season (in the fall) and bucks will cross a lot of highways to find a doe in heat. Just like a lot of men chasing after you-know-what. They really don't pay too much attention to the dangers.
Deer are flight animals, they run from danger or what they perceive as danger. It might be nothing more than a coyote, a neighbor's dog or a feral cat, but it spooks them and they run.
I wonder how many of those 3,419 accidents between deer and traffic occurred at night when there are no deer hunters in the woods and how many actually occurred during deer season? I was coming through Jefferson City on Ellis Boulevard a couple of weeks age (not deer season) at midnight and had three deer run out in front of me. Houses are all around this area but the deer don't know they are not supposed to be there.
If Winter thinks that doing away with deer hunting is the answer he is wrong. The population will not shrink, it will explode. Missouri is an agricultural state and produces a lot of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat that deer thrive on. In urban areas they dine on flowers, shrubs and new trees as well as grassy lawns. Population management is essential.
Connecticut banned deer hunting in the "70s because the bleeding hearts decided we couldn't kill Bambi. In he early "90s they reversed that decision because the deer population had exploded and the property owners were tired of replacing thousands of dollars of shrubs and flowers each year.
The city of St. Louis and the surrounding areas now allow bow hunting because the deer have become such a nuisance.
While Bernskoetter, Otto and Cliburn have defended deer hunting from their perspectives the only really irresponsible person in all this is Cal Winter.