Urban deer should not be domesticated

Editor: I write in response to Suzanne Pugh’s eloquent and humane solution to living with urban deer. I have lived in the Upper Mission since 1981, and we never had urban deer problems until after the 2003 wild fires.

Her suggestion that we should educate ourselves to live with urban deer is ridiculous.

First of all, we should not have urban deer any more than we have urban cougar, urban bear or urban wolves.

Deer are extremely destructive, a hazard on the roads and a danger to people. They also bring ticks into our gardens, which can carry and spread lyme disease. They also cover our yards with deer excrement, which also can be unhealthy in itself.

Having lived here for 36 years, I do not have to do a deer count to know that the deer population is out of control. I see them every day and have had as many as 13 in my front yard, devouring everything.

What is wrong with killing deer, having them properly butchered and fed to the needy, or anyone else for that matter. We have been doing this for hundreds of years.

Now, Pugh wants to domesticate and make pets out of them. Her proposal would create a lot of jobs though, perhaps even one for herself. Besides that, it would take years and waste millions of dollars.

She says she consulted with a few neighbours and the consensus is for a humane education plan.

Well, we have consulted with 1,200 people, and 85 per cent of them are in favour of a logical and more realistic solution. And most of them thanked us immensely for taking the effort to do this petition.

While Kelowna-Mission MLA Steve Thomson was still the minister in charge of wildlife management, we met with him on several occasions regarding this issue. He agreed something has to be done. However, before anything can happen, it must be initiated by the city. As it is surely a contentious issue, the city is in denial that we have a problem.

Hopefully, this petition will get them to take their heads out of the sand, and acknowledge the problem. And I surely hope that we don’t build another retirement spa up in East Kelowna like we did for the bunnies. We are still paying something like $6,000 a year to look after them until they die of old age.

Frank Bechard, Kelowna