I have received from several sources some information regarding deer fatalities resulting from either hunter harvest figures or vehicular impacts.
To date, December 2011, interestingly enough, our most popular game processing butcher shop, Grimms on Eckhardt, has processed 500-plus dear, according to longtime employee Barbara.
Also, a call back from Christine Silver, road safety co-coordinator for the Southern Interior region, gave me some statistics for Penticton using the “pedal to the metal method”. There were 11 vehicular impacts in September, six in October and four in November. But, as she pointed out, these numbers will increase dramatically when one takes into account that older vehicles do not carry impact collision insurance, therefore many are not reported.
Now take into consideration deer harvested by our local orchardists and vintners along with those people who process their own deer, not to mention those which are taken illegally (poached). One can only speculate conservatively, approximately 1,000 deer are no longer chewing on Penticton citizens’ prize roses or exotic shrubs or threatening a handful of people who walk their pets in town. Nature has its way of righting things if we don’t interfere. As for the cull “band wagon,” say no more, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Andy Homan
Penticton