In the fiery debate over how to manage the deer in Shawnee Mission Park, Randy Knight heard it all.
| Nicole Reinertson |
| Randy Knight, community relations manager for JoCo parks |
Once the herd is scaled back to a level that the landscape can sustain, Knight says, the district will try to keep the deer in check without sharpshooters and bow hunters. "Our sincere hope is we can move forward and manage the herd in new ways and better ways," he says.
That hope is written into the district's official management plan, which dictates that "the District's ongoing deer management efforts include continued consideration of non-lethal management methods." That could mean partnering with scientists to conduct research on contraceptives, Knight says. It could mean taking residents up on their offers to raise money to pay for birth control, if the costs exceeds the county's budget, he adds.
Despite his aggressive tactics, Jason Miller, founder of Bite Club, says he's still willing to work with the district. In fact, Knight reached out to Bite Club this summer, as possible collaborators. "I said, 'I don't see us working together at this point, but if that's true about non-lethal options, maybe we will work together some day,'" Miller says.
In the meantime, Bite Club is moving up the political hierarchy.
In late September, Miller appeared on a Canadian radio show with another anti-hunting activist, Lane Ferrante, who has been fighting deer hunts on public land in Solon, Ohio, for years. But that kind of opposition is the short term battle, she said. The long-range war requires wider political pressure. To change policy on the state level, Ferrante founded the League of Humane Voters of Ohio, which works to elect animal friendly politicians and keeps track of legislators once in office.
Miller says he wants to create a similar organization in Kansas City. Susan Bennett is already on board. Bennett was the first activist to agitate against the deer harvest. She started an online petition and created a YouTube channel. A legal assistant for 35 years, she started monitoring state legislation in Topeka, too.
One of the bills that caught her attention during the 2009 session was authored by Rep. Anthony Brown. The Eudora Republican's measure would "provide for a season for archery ... for hunting deer within the boundaries of Shawnee Mission Park." The Johnson County Park and Recreation District, then in the middle of studying its deer dilemma, opposed the bill and its director Michael Meadors testified against it.
Now that the hunt is on, Brown hopes such legislation won't be necessary next session.
"We'll wait to see what the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks says
about the population, and if the health of that population can be
maintained," he says.
Either way, Brown will have to watch his back for Bite Clubbers. The League of Humane Voters, Bennett says, will keep track of future bills and make sure the newly mobilized ranks of animal supporters know when to pick up the phone or drive out to Topeka. More importantly, Bennett emphasizes, the voting block will actively campaign to get animal-lovers elected to office.
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I think the rifle hunting was for police sharpshooters only, and the silencer was to prevent disturbing neighbors and park visitors. Police sharpshooters are trained to make sure they have an adequate backstop before firing, so for them safety is not a huge issue.
Bow hunting for citizens is the only way to go. Shots would be confined to 30-40 yards and arrows just stick in the ground when shot from an elevated stand. I can testify that a well placed arrow will kill a deer quickly and efficiently. If you can't hit what you're aiming at you aren't hunting ethically and should practice until you can shoot accurately before you enter the woods. And proximity to people and homes is really not an issue since these deer were hunted over bait and shots could be confined to remote or off limits areas of the park. Maybe as an experiment the deer should be left to their own devices and when they are starving to death and eating your $40,000 landscape you'll have a different view of hunters. And when anti hunters say that wounded deer will run into the road or seek out people's doorsteps, that is just wrong. A wounded deer will generally run a short distance and bed down. 200 deer per square mile is asking for deer-car collisions to happen regularly. Certainly many more than if wounded deer were the cause. Check out the insurance institutes figures for deer-car collisions and you'll see that some states have a 1 in 50 or even greater chance of hitting a deer. I don't know where these guys get their statistics for wounding rates etc but check it out for yourself before you believe these fearmongers. BTW no one I know of has to report or collects data on hit/ miss/ kill/ wound ratios from their hunting experiences. So when they say 55 percent wounding rate, how do they know?
I hope hunting will be soon heard. This is a matter of survival and sometimes animal activists are just not hearing this.
A regular thing. What!! How come it is okay for them to hunt when they shouldn't be. I thought it was illegal to hunt deer during darkness. Same rules should apply.
I understand some hunting, but close the park and hunt during actual hunting times....
So let me understand, Hunting by fancy sharpshooters is going to be when it is dark which is not fair to the deer and puts them at a disadvantage. And silencers. Please. this is just cruel....
Why is it that people assume that because I hunt I do not love animals? If you look up hunter in the dictionary I'm pretty sure it does not say animal hater. You animal activist need to get out of the world of Unicorns and rainbows. Man and any other meat eating creature has been hunting for years. What do you think Native Americans used to hunt their query? At some point in your ancestry a direct descendant of yours killed something and ate it.
In NJ, all these issues were dealt with 20 some years ago at the "Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge" and yes there is an annual hunt every year since then. But they close the refuge, not leave it open during the day. Also, this is not in the middle of an urban area. Last, stray bullets from even a cheap hunting rifle can travel a mile or so and go through house walls. The announced "safety" rules appear totally inadequate. Only thing I saw was that it would be after closing?? Does this mean night hunting?? Does anyone understand the concept of gross negligence? What about the folks how might be a bit late getting out after walking around the lake? What about early morning joggers around the park? Are they going to close surrounding streets? There are a few houses over there. Are they going to put folks in hotels? Deer usually bed down just inside a tree line. So if hunters are within a hundred feet or so of park boundry, where could the lead end up? I avoid opening day for just this reason. Firearms in an urban area, what an mix. Who is providing accidental death insurance? Would an insurance company even touch this? Has the county even considered that a good lawyer can get 10 million per person? Just wondering. For those who think I support a non-hunt: I eat deer meat and I hunt with a bow as its just to easy, (for me anyway) to knock over a critter with a rifle. My point is safty, that's all. Perhaps the folks who object can attempt to obtain camping permits in the park for every day the hunt could occur.
It get's really old hearing all you animal rights activist complain about what man has been doing for how many years now? Just in order to survive or live hunting has been a necessity. You people are really in for a rude awakening if we ever have to revert to old ways to survive.
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