I was tipped off to a great blog posting about an animal rights group that opposed deer hunting in London, England. Apparently, they decided to buy a small plot of land and create a deer sanctuary. If the facts are correct, this group found out quite quickly that emotional debates about hunting do not trump scientific fact.

The blog post states that after the tract of land began to hold large numbers of deer - mother nature took over:

“… for starters, the deer population skyrocketed and the deer started stripping all the vegetation from the forests and fields. So what did the folks at LACS do then? That’s right — they began feeding the deer in winter. Of coure even more deer showed up, and soon an area of just 225 acres had more than 300 deer on it. The animals, still hungry and now even more overcrowded, began eating each others feces, thereby spreading flukes and worms across the entire herd…” Entire Article Here

In my opinion, the greatest threat to wildlife and hunting are wildlife management plans that do not include and recognize hunting as an effective tool to accomplish wildlife management goals. There are more deer in Ontario now than there ever was. This success comes from many sources, but a large portion of the funds for conservation measures come from hunting fees and licenses.

They DO NOT come from anti-hunting groups.

For those of you who are against the killing of helpless animals (and you are not vegetarian), the animal product you are eating for lunch came from a helpless animal. Be careful that you don’t jump on the ‘anti’ bandwagon too quickly.

Bill Anderson - Muskoka Outdoors