Lanse couche couche

There was just recently a town meeting in one of the Dayton suburbs. The issue was whether to allow bow hunting of deer on private property within city limits because of overpopulation.The issuewas essentially tabled. Why? Because a bunch of families showed up and had kids talking about how much they enjoy watching the deer bring their "babies" into their yards. Others raised the issue of safety. I guessthe weekly deer/auto accidents are worth it for the sake of deer watching. AndI guess the other urban bow hunting activities elsewhere with few, if any, accidents aren't worth considering.

jcchartboy

Not much to say..the question,and the answers are obvious.

Explaining the reasoning for the outcome....well, it is hard to explain illogical responses from the public.

Garminator

The public needs to be better informed on the consequences of deer overpopulation and conservation.

teamster284

just down the road from me there is a state of ohio girl scout camp loaded full of deer. i counted 30 crossing the road at once, i had to stop and let them go liek cattle. ajoining that property is a city of columbus metro park. and it is loaded up with deer too. no hunting what so ever and u.s. 70 runs right between both. no matter what time of year you see dead deer on both sides of the freeway and on both sides of the country roads that these 2 properties border. there have been some really bad accidents on 70 and still no hunting. i guess it will take a few more bad accidents and maybe a few people killed. people are miss informed and need educated in my book. so what "pretty little deer with babies" must not have hit one yet...............................................

bouncer6475

I live in NE ohio and hunt in CUYAHOGA VALLEY on private property in the middle of the nat park...the deer are as think as anything but you can only hunt on private propertry ...i see a new deer on the side of the road about everyother day..only makes sence to open up the area to atleast bow only hunting just to thin the herd...same as solon if they would open it to public even have a drawing for X amount of particapants it would do something to thin them out but the powers that be would rather use snipers and spend way to much $$ than make some and still get the job done

Lanse couche couche

Teamster,

I do a lot of running back and forth between Dayton and Springfield as well as Columbus. You are right about the interstate deer body count. I can't even keep track of the carcasses on that stretch.

Wolf killer

Sounds like you guys need some wolves to help control your deer population? I would be happy to sent 1,000-wolves your way. They are killing way too many elk & deer in Wyoming, Montana & Idaho.[:@]

That being said. Looks to me like the hunters & wildlife biologist know what needs to be done. Too bad the state has to listen to the feel good people. They should open up deer season to does & fawns only. The auto accidents would drop, the deer population would be in better shape & meat could be donated to feed hungry people.

Bob H in NH

To deal with this you have to have an audience who believes there's a problem. No matter what you will get people against the hunting.

Suggest some "restrictions" to the bowhunters:

- tree stand hunting only, so arrows are always going down towards the ground
- no closer than xx yards from a house/yard to minimize the chance of a deer dieing in someones yard, you need to decide on xx based on the size of the woods around.
- "experienced" only bowhunters, proof of 3 bow kills only.
- 50% of the meat goes to homeless shelters
- written permission from the landowner

Bring them out slowly to ease objections. It can be done, but it may take a group to step forward to police/control the hunt.

3Ddepression

A problem with democracy is that everybodys vote should count for the same, whether the person knows anything about the issue or not.

Bob H make a lot of sence in making the culling operation smoother. There should also perhaps be long term adjustments to the hunting outside the urban setting since I guess the deer leave those areas because of overpopulation.

How are such problems normally handeled?

Green Pea

I live in Springfield Ohio and drive 40 miles one way to work in Marysville, and I can guarantee you that every morning I see no less than 10 deer along the way. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to swerve to miss deer on my way to work.

The roads are polluted with deed deer and I don’t see it getting any better unless the laws here change. There are 16 thousand people at Honda where I work that like myself commute long distances to get there. It seams like every other day I here someone in the office talking about barley missing a deer that morning.

At the same time you’d be surprised at how many of those same people are against hunting. The guy that sits across from me was almost shocked when he found out that I’m taking up hunting. He asked me why I decided to start killing animals and said it surprised him. I told him I don’t look at it as killing animals. For starters I almost feel a moral obligation to help diffuse the problem we have with deer. There are a hundred reasons I’m looking forward to deer season later this year but I didn’t feel like I had anything to explain to anyone so I left it at that.