I was shocked and saddened by the story in today’s papers stating that city council had passed a bill allowing the in-city culling and euthanasia of deer.
It was misleading to state that there was no significant response against city council’s deer plan. Until today no specifics had been decided or communicated about this. The last I read in the newspaper was mention of relocation. Would relocation cost too much? I’d rather see my taxes going to relocation rather than guns; but I wasn’t consulted.
The deer face dangers from humans and their pets. They risk being hit by cars, chased by unleashed dogs (which I witnessed). Why was the dog unleashed? And why wouldn’t a deer run away if it was being chased by a large dog? As for small dogs, they will bark at a moving leaf, with no notion of how big the object is they are encountering.
I have seen people provoking deer by running after them with sticks in gated communities in this town, but have not seen any of the human travesties against the deer being reported in the media.
If, as the mayor’s office states, 60 complaints have been filed against deer, that is hardly representative of a town of more than 30,000. It makes me wonder if these minority voices are being used to advance a city council agenda.
Allowing shooting within city limits could be dangerous to humans.
Why are they not going to be relocated to outlying areas?
I moved from a large Eastern Canadian city to Penticton, because of what I thought was a place where wildlife and people lived amicably together. I was charmed, and still am, by seeing the deer walking on the foothills in view of my townhouse. I will be furious, if I can no longer look out and see the deer, or worse witness them being shot or euthanized. Maybe the complainers might support humane relocation, if they had lived somewhere else, only to see concrete walls, highrises, pollution and traffic marring their view, instead of deer munching on petunias and fruits.
Humans are the ones who have encroached on nature. This “cull them off” attitude makes me feel ashamed to be called human, especially when there is a no-kill solution.
Heather Caron
Penticton