by Pa Rock
Farmer in Fall
Missouri has several different types of seasons for hunting deer, but the big one, the one where orange-clad "sportsmen" with big rifles get to stalk the beautiful and fairly docile creatures, has only recently begun. In fact, last Saturday was the opening day of gun deer season in Missouri, and hunters managed to "harvest" over a hundred thousand deer in the first two days of the murderous frenzy. My own county, Howell (Howl) led the state in deer kills with over 2,000 being reported over the bloody weekend. After brief stops by the newspaper office to pose for trophy pictures, the carcasses are quickly carted off to meat processors and taxidermists where the once proud animals are ground into summer sausage and have their heads preserved to hang on trailer house walls where they will frighten small children and be used as coat racks throughout the coming year.
If it sounds like I take this annual outrage a bit too seriously, it is undoubtedly because I do. Yes, there are too many deer in our state, and they do require thinning, but to just throw open the woods to a stampede of hunters, many of them drunks and some of them children, seems like madness. There will be human deaths as a result of the rifle deer season - there always are, but those deaths will be downplayed and minimized. The important number is always the total of deer killed.
I feed the deer at my little farm. Actually I feed lots of creatures, and three deer yearlings come by most mornings, before daylight, to share in the grain that is strewn on the ground. They are tame, so unafraid that I am often within ten feet of them when we first notice each other. They scamper away until I finish tossing out the grain, and then slip back up to finish their breakfast.
This week we have all been more on edge as gunshots rip through the sylvan serenity of the countryside during most waking hours. The young deer normally stay hidden during the daylight hours, but Wednesday one appeared in my front yard in the middle of the day. He acted disoriented and eventually headed back toward the barn and away from the road - but not before several motorists had slowed and took his measure, and presumably weighed the risks of shooting a deer in their neighbor's yard.
I will be glad when the season for this bloody "sport" comes to a close so me and my friends can get back to the peace and quiet that we cherish.
Farmer in Fall
Missouri has several different types of seasons for hunting deer, but the big one, the one where orange-clad "sportsmen" with big rifles get to stalk the beautiful and fairly docile creatures, has only recently begun. In fact, last Saturday was the opening day of gun deer season in Missouri, and hunters managed to "harvest" over a hundred thousand deer in the first two days of the murderous frenzy. My own county, Howell (Howl) led the state in deer kills with over 2,000 being reported over the bloody weekend. After brief stops by the newspaper office to pose for trophy pictures, the carcasses are quickly carted off to meat processors and taxidermists where the once proud animals are ground into summer sausage and have their heads preserved to hang on trailer house walls where they will frighten small children and be used as coat racks throughout the coming year.
If it sounds like I take this annual outrage a bit too seriously, it is undoubtedly because I do. Yes, there are too many deer in our state, and they do require thinning, but to just throw open the woods to a stampede of hunters, many of them drunks and some of them children, seems like madness. There will be human deaths as a result of the rifle deer season - there always are, but those deaths will be downplayed and minimized. The important number is always the total of deer killed.
I feed the deer at my little farm. Actually I feed lots of creatures, and three deer yearlings come by most mornings, before daylight, to share in the grain that is strewn on the ground. They are tame, so unafraid that I am often within ten feet of them when we first notice each other. They scamper away until I finish tossing out the grain, and then slip back up to finish their breakfast.
This week we have all been more on edge as gunshots rip through the sylvan serenity of the countryside during most waking hours. The young deer normally stay hidden during the daylight hours, but Wednesday one appeared in my front yard in the middle of the day. He acted disoriented and eventually headed back toward the barn and away from the road - but not before several motorists had slowed and took his measure, and presumably weighed the risks of shooting a deer in their neighbor's yard.
I will be glad when the season for this bloody "sport" comes to a close so me and my friends can get back to the peace and quiet that we cherish.
1 comment:
Deer management is always difficult. Bryce and I have seen them along 55th Street crossing from Shawnee to Merriam. They have fed at our bird feeders. Fortunately our urban environment has wooded areas through which small streams flow. Further to the West the large county park has had to hire archers to thin the deer population. It is never a popular decision to deal with these animals. One area county maintains a road kill list where you can sign up to harvest the meat from deer killed on the highways. That is one of the poorest counties in Kansas.
I remember once the outrage of a family whose pet deer was killed. They had gone so far as to stencil words on their deer to not kill it was a pet. Killing deer from a vehicle is not hunting and I believe it is still against the law.
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