by Mr. Dynamite » Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:01 pm
Jonny buck - I agree with you, for them to feed them is a disservice. The cemetery is already battling with flower wreaths being stripped of flowers, bushes and trees being stripped of bark and leaves, and deer being everywhere. They have already been spending thousands to repel the deer, but it is like a 100 acre high fence pasture surrounded by houses and city - the deer can and do jump out, but then come right back in. They suspect that these deer migrated here from another park which had too many deer - carrying capacity was 2 or 3, it had 56. Those deer terrorized flowerbeds and shrubs for blocks around that park. Suddenly they seem to have left, and now this cemetery, just down river in the city, has as many as 36 deer they say. These deer have been born and raised in the city, becoming completely reliant on handouts. The houses backing on to the cemetery put out corn and hay for them. The people coming in feed them. Some people complain about their being there, but this is Canada. They would personally sacrifice themselves before they would see one deer culled. And if one got poached - you can bet their pink poodle they would be in an uproar! (I personally dont think any poacher would risk it here in the middle of the city with a one exit/entrance cemetery surrounded by busy roads and houses, and crawling with people) So I agree with what you are saying it is not good to feed deer, and our DNR constantly tells people that, but people do. It seems like the only way numbers of urban deer, protected from a cull, will ever be able to collapse and return to normal again - or at least move on once they have picked an area clean.
