Comments on: Animal Magnetism

By: Standard Mischief » Kate Middleton goes hunting, and I critique the press and PETA

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:54:26 +0000

[...] Yup, it’s far better, according to PETA, to let the deer herd grow out of control. Then commuters like me can hit and cripple the deer, causing a slow and painful death and quite a bit of car damage too. [...]

By: Standard Mischief

Standard Mischief — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:34:34 +0000

I ought to post that story in a day or so. I’ve also got a few more photos and a graphic of road kill from a nearby county to show and tell (it’s a graphic, but it’s not graphic – it’s a map with red dots on it).

By: Laurel

Laurel — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:47:19 +0000

Despite growing up in the northern Sierra foothills of California, then relocating to the rolling hills of northern Idaho, I have yet to hit a deer. I’ve actually never hit anything – and managed to avoid coming very close. I attribute this largely to driving large, noisy vehicles… I think they can probably hear me coming a little better. Of course, you mentioned creaming a couple in a Suburban, so maybe I’m just lucky!

Also, nice outline/rant about mismanagement of populations. That’s one reason I am pro-hunting. Like it or not, we are at the top of the food chain, and our place there has depleted or destroyed a lot of the natural controls on game animal populations. I believe it is our responsibility to humanely harvest animals, thereby sparing them from diseases related to overpopulation, starvation, or vehicle-induced deaths, which are not only wasteful resource-wise, but likely to be slow and painful for the animal.

Maryland should also consider increasing bag limits or opening a doe season, if you don’t already have one. I definitely think a longer season is in order for y’all – ours is 10/10 to 12/1!

By: Standard Mischief

Standard Mischief — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:59:01 +0000

Don’t they have Moose up there in Michigan? I’d choose a deer to hit over a moose any day.

I’d tell her to buy a truck, but the collision before this one involved two deer that tried to clear a 6.5 foot high suburban. The one that made it and escaped also knocked out two (expensive) side windows. The one that stayed for dinner hit the intersection of the drivers door, the roof, and the front glass. I was inches away from having yearling buck in my lap.

I found that it’s far cheaper to score used side glass and risk installing it yourself. However, the front glass is replaced so often that bidding the job out to a pro is only a few bucks extra over doing it yourself (and it’s their fault if it breaks during installation.)

By: TD

TD — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:52:08 +0000

I have a friend who’s hit three deer here in Michigan in the last year. No one will get in a car with her anymore.

By: Standard Mischief

Standard Mischief — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:04:35 +0000

Doe usually birth two offspring each and every year that they are fertile. I don’t think that there are many female deer out there past menopause, though I assume it’s possible.

My statement is somewhat misleading because the population is controlled throughout the year by the whitetail’s natural predator, the SUV. There’s also starvation over winter, hunters, parasites, and in some cases the very young are taken by eastern coyotes or black bears.

We’ve killed off almost all of the eastern great cats.

Google says that the life expectancy is something like six to 14 years.

By: Philip L. Welch

Philip L. Welch — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:49:15 +0000

Isn’t two offspring per female considered replacement rate, which simply maintains a net zero population growth? (Considering that 1 out of 2 deer is a doe, if each doe gives birth to two fawns, we have 2 young deer for each 2 older deer who are about to die.) Or do deer have a greater-than-one-generation life expectancy that significantly changes this?