DEER "CULLING" DOESN'T WORK

That is, the most common spin on "culling" - i.e. mass-murdering - deer, which is that there's a population crisis that has to be dealt with once and for all with this extreme measure, is utterly bogus. The only way the death-based system works is by applying it over and over and over again, shooting more and more deer in a constant killing cycle, because in the short term "culling" achieves the opposite effect of that advertised.

Animal activists already know this, but it's good to see it spelled out so clearly in this article: Tim Thompson, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources in Iowa, is quoted as saying "I was amazed at how high it rebounded," and explaining that "as the deer herd in an area is thinned, diminished competition and a greater food supply can create an ideal habitat for the remaining population." The piece goes further to point out that hunters are not an efficient population-control mechanism ("Hunters don't do as good a job as they think," says a USDA wildlife biologist specializing in deer) and even further than that to explain why game officials continue to rely on killing rather than sane, safe and effective population-control approaches like contraception: "In fact, some officials would rather encourage hunting because they see deer as a resource that contributes to a lucrative hunting industry." Yep. Not news to the rest of us, but a nice change of pace to see it in "the news."