Deer Hunt Protestors Chain Selves to Diocese Door

[vermonster13]

Two New York anti-hunters were arrested this week after chaining themselves to the entrance of a Catholic diocese building to protest a deer cull.

 

Deirdre Guelke and Therese Ferreira were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest as they protested a cull in Lloyd Harbor, New York on Long Island. Authorities had to saw apart the chains, which had been looped through the doors and around the women’s necks.

 

According to The Long Island Press, the Animal Defense League’s Long Island chapter has launched several demonstrations against the deer control program.  Some protests have occurred at Lloyd Harbor Mayor Leland Hairr’s home.  Last year, activists spray-painted his car with their logo.

 

This year marks the third annual deer cull in Lloyd Harbor.  It was prompted by a skyrocketing deer population that increased to such a level that it poses significant ecological effects and is a threat to public health and safety.

U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and  www.ussportsmen.org

[MI_Bowhunter]

Well, at least they can't screw up anyone's hunting while they are chained to the door.  Maybe we shouldn't cut the chains and see how committed they really are.

What is their solution to overpopulation?  Here in MI we have over 65,000 deer car accidents every year.  Hunters take another 400,000+.   Untold numbers are killed as a result of poaching, unreported accidents and natural causes.  Still we have overpopulated areas.

In the wild, in a balanced ecosystem, animal populations have a way of keeping themselves in check.   Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect ecosystem.  We have farms creating large densities of deer; we have urban sprawl that is condensing herds of deer into unnaturally small areas; we have unhuntable areas where deer popultions grow unchecked.  In short we have society.

We've altered what's "natural".  As a result, deer populations don't keep themselves in check naturally.   Winters are not as bad in a lot of areas resulting in fewer deaths from natural selection and we have hunted most of the deer's natural predators to near extinction.

I'm sure I haven’t stated anything that anyone here doesn’t already know.   And the people that need to know arent going to get it anyway.  Thanks for putting up with my outline of the obvious. I just get so annoyed when I hear about groups pulling these sort of antics and I need to vent. Maybe I just need a  

[Al Dente]

I've been trying to contact the ArchDiocese of Rockville Centre for more than 2 years...to nao avail.  the Bishop's office will not respond to my telephone calls or letters.

For the last 4 years they've had either sharpshooters or a shotgun hunter shooting the deer over a bait pile.  In one night the shotgunner took 33 deer!!!!

It's just another example of how lands are being closed out for bowhunters.  We (New York Bowhunters Inc.) have a very successful Urban Deer Management Program, but for several years now, not just the ArchDiocese, but 8 other municipalities have ignored the Program.  They'd rather pay sharpshooters (up to $2,000'day), use their police forces over bait piles, try sterilization, or install 8'-9' high deer fences.

As bowhunters, we can do it safer, more ethically, and for FREE!!!!

Now that the mid-term elections are a thing of the past, I'll be focusing on political pressure.
When you see the facts of the deer/vehicle collision rates dropping when the Program is utilized, it's kinda hard to ignore.  When will they listen, when someone is impaled by an antler throught a windshield?

[vermonster13]

Only if the person is an anti that voted.

[MI_Bowhunter]

Wow, I didn't realize that by culled, you meant killed en-masse like that.   I guess I assumed that they were allowing hunters to come in for a restricted hunt or something.

I hope, at least, that the meat was donated to a shelter or something.

[Alex.B]

there's no way we (bowhunters) can compete with 1 shotgunner killing 33 deer in one night. if these measures were taken and that many were killed, isn't it because the overpopulation problem became out of control? and wouldn't it take too many bowhunters in the suburban woods to come up with 33? I don't know......but I bet Ray Hammond does  
PS: I'm with leaving these self important idiots chained to the door overnight, at least  

[Al Dente]

The population was estimated to be between 60 and 80 deer.  This "cull" has been going on for several years now.  It has nothing to do with competing.  Shooting deer at night, over bait piles, with a flood light is not what we as bowhunters do.  Bowhunters CAN do it and are willing to do it; safer, ethically, and for free.

[Alex.B]

Oh, OK.    
anyway, I didn't mean competing as a race with a winner and losers, but as a faster, more efficient way of "culling" that particular deer herd, since it sounded at first like they were bedding in supermarket parking lots  :D  . I asked that question BEFORE I knew there were only 60 to 80 deer

[Ray Hammond]

Often people opt for sharpshooters rather than bowhunters for several reasons.

First, its easier for them. Think about it: bowhunters would have to enter the property for several weeks to kill 33 deer, so access, egress, and getting the deer and entrails out become an issue on a regular ongoing basis.

Second, in some situations they know it will become politically charged, with protestors standing around outside their facilities, raising heck, calling in the media- in short, it becomes a circus if there is no good way for the bowhuunters to get in and out without running a gauntlet of media/protestors each day they operate.

No one wins when deer are treated like rats...but in some cases, you stand a chance of doing more harm for bowhunting than good, by insisting that the situation be handled by US rather than the ratshooters.

Just make sure the venison is distributed to the needy, Al, or at least doesnt go to waste. Get some mileage by processing the deer the sharpshooter takes and get it in the right hands to get your organization some brownie points with the public if they wont see it your way.