I live in suburban / rural western Ohio, and the deer population is out of control. Deer strikes are very common. If you haven't been in a car during a deer strike (particularly at night) you don't have a clear sense of how frightening and dangerous it is. I'd like to see more control of the deer population locally.
My property adjoins an urban nature preserve and we regularly have 10+ deer in our front yard. They're cute and we enjoy watching them, but our yard is also lousy with ticks in the summer. It's very inconvenient.
The nature preserve was a farm field, landlocked inside a city, and it became a park in 2004. In the years since the deer population in the park has climbed steadily. We used to walk in the park before we owned property adjoining, and seeing deer used to be a rare treat. In the last 5-7 years they have become an all day, every day presence. (It doesn't help that other adjoining properties put out food and salt licks, either.)
I haven't eaten venison in a long time, but my recollection is that it was pretty tasty. In terms of being concerned about the ethics, I feel better about the life a wild deer lived than a feed lot cow.
Bender•3w ago
Deer strikes are very common.
I take care of about 120 mule deer and in my case the reason they cross the highway at night is to get access to unprotected bales of Alfalfa on other properties. They get cold at night which makes them hungry and they love the protein in it. My solution was to put bales of Alfalfa in my yard in addition to all the other things I feed them. Thus far no more complaints from the new game warden that doesn't want to get called at night when people file reports with the highway patrol for their insurance claims. Now all 120 stay on either my property or just behind me to bed. It did not help that the transition from fall to winter was unusually long this year. A good layer of snow and really cold weather also seems to help keep them in place.
If feasible encourage any neighbors with unprotected bales of Alfalfa to put a deer-proof fence around it. Their incentive should be keeping deer urine away from their investment as the deer urine will dissuade horses and cattle from eating it thus wasting a lot of money. Another attractant is fruit trees. Encourage neighbors to prune their trees to keep their yard free of deer urine and feces. If you see scat down the back of their legs they've been eating fruit or someone may be feeding them corn which should be stopped or at very least give them heated bowls of water with a small amount of iodized salt based on the amount of water about 1 tbsp per gallon to help them digest it and not get dehydrated from the diarrhea the excess sugar from the fruit or corn induces. Water can attract and retain raccoons so be ready for that.
Prior to my moving here there were about 20-25 deer strikes on the highway at night per year. I reduced that to 1-2 during fall higher this last fall due to weather anomaly and 0 during winter. There will always be strikes as this has been their migration path for longer than humans have existed. The highway has a giant sign with flags saying to watch for deer. People drive too fast at night which only the highway patrol can and do assist with.
silexia•3w ago
I have 100+ deer that wander around my farm all winter, eating everything in my fields on my farm. I am not allowed to harvest them even though the law in the state of Washington says I should be able to (depredation rules). The crazy fish and game department has not issued a depredation permit to any farmer in the area at least according to everyone I have spoken with.
EvanAnderson•3w ago
My property adjoins an urban nature preserve and we regularly have 10+ deer in our front yard. They're cute and we enjoy watching them, but our yard is also lousy with ticks in the summer. It's very inconvenient.
The nature preserve was a farm field, landlocked inside a city, and it became a park in 2004. In the years since the deer population in the park has climbed steadily. We used to walk in the park before we owned property adjoining, and seeing deer used to be a rare treat. In the last 5-7 years they have become an all day, every day presence. (It doesn't help that other adjoining properties put out food and salt licks, either.)
I haven't eaten venison in a long time, but my recollection is that it was pretty tasty. In terms of being concerned about the ethics, I feel better about the life a wild deer lived than a feed lot cow.
Bender•3w ago
I take care of about 120 mule deer and in my case the reason they cross the highway at night is to get access to unprotected bales of Alfalfa on other properties. They get cold at night which makes them hungry and they love the protein in it. My solution was to put bales of Alfalfa in my yard in addition to all the other things I feed them. Thus far no more complaints from the new game warden that doesn't want to get called at night when people file reports with the highway patrol for their insurance claims. Now all 120 stay on either my property or just behind me to bed. It did not help that the transition from fall to winter was unusually long this year. A good layer of snow and really cold weather also seems to help keep them in place.
If feasible encourage any neighbors with unprotected bales of Alfalfa to put a deer-proof fence around it. Their incentive should be keeping deer urine away from their investment as the deer urine will dissuade horses and cattle from eating it thus wasting a lot of money. Another attractant is fruit trees. Encourage neighbors to prune their trees to keep their yard free of deer urine and feces. If you see scat down the back of their legs they've been eating fruit or someone may be feeding them corn which should be stopped or at very least give them heated bowls of water with a small amount of iodized salt based on the amount of water about 1 tbsp per gallon to help them digest it and not get dehydrated from the diarrhea the excess sugar from the fruit or corn induces. Water can attract and retain raccoons so be ready for that.
Prior to my moving here there were about 20-25 deer strikes on the highway at night per year. I reduced that to 1-2 during fall higher this last fall due to weather anomaly and 0 during winter. There will always be strikes as this has been their migration path for longer than humans have existed. The highway has a giant sign with flags saying to watch for deer. People drive too fast at night which only the highway patrol can and do assist with.