We talk about Penticton being a tourist destination. It appears to be more a deer destination. If you drive around town, there is damage everywhere.
Homeowners have spent hundreds of dollars landscaping and nurturing trees, only to be destroyed by deer. These animals do not belong in the city. You only have to witness one being hit by a vehicle on the street to know their well-being is at risk.
The persons who are awed by their presence need to go out into the forest and enjoy them. As your trees are destroyed, your property is unsightly and devalued and the work involved to remove the dead trees is expensive and labour intensive. How are the elderly who wish to remain in their homes to cope with this? My family is experiencing exactly this situation.
The persons who decry the removal of the deer probably don’t have this problem. When is city council going to take the appropriate action and not be hindered by some who have nothing better to do than oppose?
The deer do not need to be destroyed, as a property owner at Willowbrook had 160 acres of nature adjoining Crown land, and two persons from the Keremeos area, one being a retired veterinarian, offered to tranquilize the deer and remove them. Why are we not accepting the proposal? We do not need to count them; we know there are many.
Council, it is time for you to make a decision before someone is critically injured as has happened in other communities.
Carol Newton
Penticton