[Mishmash] FYI: Fwd: ACT/ Protest Australia's Mass Kangaroo Kill

[Fred Atkinson]

> We have the same sort of problem where I live, except it's deer, not 
> 'roos.
> When we moved here 30+ years ago, the problem didn't exist.  My first 
> exposure
> to it came some years ago when i was driving down a neighborhood street 
> and saw
> (I thought) a couple of those lawn ornaments some people have -- deer 
> statues.
> Then a "lawn ornament" lifted its head and looked at me.   Since then it 
> has
> become worse each year.  They're all over, and not just in my 
> neighborhood.
> I've had a half dozen at a time on my front lawn.  They've made a nice 
> meal of
> some of the flowers and other plants we once had on our front lawn, and
> created havoc in a local arboretum until the fence was raised beyond 
> twelve
> feet.  (Did you know deer can jump a fence that high?  The arboretum 
> people
> didn't either, but they found out.)  They finally brought in some 
> sharpshooters
> with night-vision goggles and silencers to keep from frightening the 
> neighbors,
> who live only yards away from the place.

    I used to see them running through the streets of Gaithersburg.  And I 
remember once getting onto the Beltway on the Connecticut Avenue cloverlead 
and had one run right across in front of me.

> I must admit there have been some appealing moments, such as the time a 
> spotted
> fawn who must have been only a month or two old wound up on somebody
> else's lawn.
> Normally we don't see them that young; I assume their elders keep
> them buried in
> the parkland nearby but this one evidently escaped from kindergarten.  He 
> stood
> there looking at us as the car approached, then panicked and turned
> to run.  But
> at his age, he didn't know how, so he bounced, hopped and skipped to the 
> other
> side of a tree on the lawn.  He then stuck his head around the side
> of the tree,
> staring in wide-eyed wonder to see if we had left yet.

    I almost ran over a faun in Tennessee near a microwave station I was 
working on.  The doe ran across in front of me and I watched as she ran into 
the woods.  When she disappeared, I looked foward and there was her faun in 
front of me.  I narrowly missed the faun.

> Thinning the herd is raising the same questions here as it is in your
> area.  The
> animal-rights people want to do nothing, or at most use birth control. 
> The
> vigilantes want to bring in more guns, which can't be recommended in a 
> heavily
> populated residential area.   The arguments continue, as do the deer.

    And in Maryland, it is illegal to discharge a firearm within one mile of 
a residence.  Since Maryland is densely populated, that doesn't leave a lot 
of places for people to hunt.  So they have to come up with other ideas.

> If you Aussies figure out how to handle your critters, please let us know.

    Please!

    Regards,


                                                                             
Fred