1101 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

There is no way a municipality would condone the discharge of a weapon within its border unless it is done so by a conservation officer or the police.

[aastra]

 

Why not just kill all our urban deer, and subtract it from the hunter total?

 

Call me a jerk but there are aspects to the study and "addressing" of the urban deer issue (everywhere, not just in Victoria) that stray well into the absurd. I found that whole thing re: remote cameras to track the deer to be very silly. Remote cameras in frickin' Oak Bay. Any day on television you can watch dozens of different programs about researchers going into the deep wilderness somewhere to study this animal population or that. Seriously, Oak Bay might just be the most comfortable and convenient and compact locale in the entire world in which to study an animal population firsthand. And so they needed remote cameras to get the data that they required. I know, I'm being unfair. The cameras would still be useful even if you can count the deer as you're walking from the ATM over to Starbucks or strolling down to the beach. But I hope you get my point, that the analysis (analysis paralysis?) has been inflated almost to a farcical degree. I feel like there's a low-budget comedy movie waiting to be made about this.

 

Following from that, seeing as how Oak Bay is so very small and so very urban, could it really serve as a model for other jurisdictions? Consider the following:

 

 

They don’t have a population count yet...

 

In Oak Bay. They don't have a population count yet in Oak frickin' Bay. But then consider the plan:

 

 

The does will either be captured and the drug injected by hand or the deer will be shot with a contraceptive dart that will administer the drug and mark the spot for identification.

 

 

If successful, UWSS hopes the program will serve as an effective, community-supported template for urban deer management around North America.

 

Right, so they don't even have a good count of the deer in Oak Bay yet after all this time and all this analysis and all this money spent, but they nevertheless plan to inject the does by hand, and they also nevertheless plan to develop a model that will be feasible in municipalities around North America. There's a deer-infested municipality called Saanich right next door to Oak Bay. It's 10 times the physical size of Oak Bay, and much more suburban and even downright wild in some places. Surrey is 30 times the size of Oak Bay and blurs into genuine wilderness in many places. Kelowna CMA is almost 300 times the size of Oak Bay. If things have been dragged out so long in Oak Bay then how the hell could any lessons learned possibly be applicable to a large suburban municipality somewhere else?

[aastra]

Put it another way so I don't sound like I'm being so hard on the researchers: if it's been such a slog in Oak Bay then I think you have your answer. What you're doing couldn't possibly be successful anywhere else.

[aastra]

Reviving some info from a 2013 article:

 

 

There were three deaths in 2007, eight in 2010, 14 in 2011 and 23 last year. There have been 11 reported deaths so far in 2013.

Most of the deer were hit by cars, and either died instantly or were euthanized by police. But a number of deer died in gruesome ways, the report said. One was impaled on a fence, another fell through a swimming pool cover and drowned. A third crashed through the ice on a frozen fish pond.

 

Compare to info in the 2018 article:

 

 

A decade ago, there were years when just one or two were found dead in the municipality, said Jensen. For the past five to six years, about 40 have been found dead each year. There’s been a “rapid escalation” over the last six years

 

If you genuinely and sincerely care about the welfare of these animals then I don't see how you can regard Oak Bay's "urban deer" phenomenon as anything but appalling. It's not cute, it's not Disney. At this point it's absolutely disgusting. To advocate for the continuation of this ridiculous situation is to despise these deer.

 

But aastra, I saw a big buck in my yard the other day. It was so natural and majestic the way he was eating flowers (that he would never encounter in the wild), pooping in my driveway, and chasing my neighbour's dog with lethal intent. You should have seen him stride obliviously into the middle of the street, forcing a cyclist to dodge onto the sidewalk and the driver of a minivan to slam on her brakes. Majesty! Compassion! Nature!

 

pic from https://www.dailymail.co.uk...

 

(Seriously, anyone who still has a fetish for this sort of thing should do a web search for "deer stuck in fence", or equivalent. Just be sure to have a barf bag handy. If this is the stuff that "animal lovers" like to see then I shudder at the thought of what "animal haters" might be into.)

Edited by aastra, 27 November 2018 - 12:15 PM.

[Bingo]

Lyme disease, a mysterious tick-borne illness, is the fastest spreading vector-borne disease in the United States, and over the past decade, the tick that carries Lyme has been spreading across Canada with alarming speed. TICKED OFF: THE MYSTERY OF LYME DISEASE is a fascinating and eye-opening documentary that explores a disease that has devastating effects, is often misdiagnosed and mistreated, and continues to be mired in a medical controversy.

 

And despite hard evidence that the Lyme-carrying, deer tick has already established populations across Canada, some people claim that patients here are still being told that they cannot contract Lyme in this country.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/na...of-lyme-disease

 

[Bingo]

In Oak Bay, police said a woman suffered minor injuries after being trampled by deer at her home near Foul Bay Road and Crescent Road on Monday.

The woman discovered the deer in her backyard and opened a gate to let them out, police said.

“The deer ran toward her, possibly perceiving her as a threat to the young fawn that had run out of the yard,” police said. “The deer knocked the resident over and stomped on her, causing her minor injuries.”

https://www.timescol...ture-1.23420481

[pinguu]

I don't think I've ever encountered a dumber animal than a deer.

[Jason-L]

Off the to

 

I don't think I've ever encountered a dumber animal than a deer.

I have - partridge, pink salmon, this one pug a friend used to own...

 

But deer are just rats with good publicity.

[Victoria Watcher]

interesting that police made a spot assessment of the deer's motives without even bringin it down to the station for questioning.  oh ya oak bay does not have detectives i guess they'd have to run it up to saanich for the interview.  different mo at least it did not use a machete on the woman.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 September 2018 - 10:21 AM.

[pinguu]

Off the to

 

I have - partridge, pink salmon, this one pug a friend used to own...

 

But deer are just rats with good publicity.

See, those are much smaller, I'd expect them to be dumber - save the dog - but deer. How the hell do they get so big being so dumb?

 

Rabbits, deer, rats, squirrels - they're all things that I have to constantly fight against in my garden - damnable creatures! If they ate the weeds I wouldn't be so annoyed!

[Mike K.]

Oak Bay is not only the violent crime and murder capital of the CRD, it’s also the epicentre of deer assaults.

[Bingo]

Reviving some info from a 2013 article:

 

Compare to info in the 2018 article:

 

If you genuinely and sincerely care about the welfare of these animals then I don't see how you can regard Oak Bay's "urban deer" phenomenon as anything but appalling. It's not cute, it's not Disney. At this point it's absolutely disgusting. To advocate for the continuation of this ridiculous situation is to despise these deer.

 

But aastra, I saw a big buck in my yard the other day. It was so natural and majestic the way he was eating flowers (that he would never encounter in the wild), pooping in my driveway, and chasing my neighbour's dog with lethal intent. You should have seen him stride obliviously into the middle of the street, forcing a cyclist to dodge onto the sidewalk and the driver of a minivan to slam on her brakes.

Majesty! Compassion! Nature

 

Some Oak Bay deer were waiting around the corner...

 

Police say that a woman riding her bike was charged and knocked to the ground by an aggressive buck last week.

Unbeknownst to her, a buck that was with a doe and fawn was waiting around the corner and charged the woman, knocking her off her bike.

The woman suffered a shoulder injury and a mild concussion, according to police.

 

In September, one woman suffered injuries when she was trampled by four deer who somehow made it into her backyard.

https://vancouverisl...k-bay-1.4192915

[Bingo]

double post removed 

 

Edited by Bingo, 27 November 2018 - 11:18 AM.

[Bingo]

Some Oak Bay deer were waiting around the corner...

 

And the story says that four deer "somehow made it into her backyard"  

It befuddles me as to how deer would know how to do that.

[Bingo]

Oak Bay is not only the violent crime and murder capital of the CRD, it’s also the epicentre of deer assaults.

 

Deer know that once in Oak Bay they have a home for life.

[Bingo]

The solution might be to have fenced in bike lanes in Oak Bay.

 

October 2017

Oak Bay Police Chief Andy Brinton is recovering in hospital after being charged by a deer while cycling on Salt Spring Island Sunday morning.

Brinton underwent surgery at Victoria Hospital Monday to repair several broken ribs and a broken collarbone according to a release from the force.

Oak Bay Deputy Police Chief Ray Bernoties told CBC News that Brinton, an avid cyclist, was by himself when the deer charged out of the forest and knocked him off his bike. 

"I'm not an animal expert by any means but I'm told it is rutting season,"said Bernoties. "It did seem unusual in that the deer did seem to actually charge him without warning."

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ision-1.4319177

[Bingo]

Venison stuffing balls recipe.

https://karylskulina...stuffing-balls/

[Victoria Watcher]

esquimalt looking at birth control.

https://www.vicnews....eer-population/

[Nparker]

Yeah it's the fences that are the problem.

...On March 1 Oak Bay Police responded to a call regarding a doe impaled on an aluminum fence post...Kelly Carson, founder of DeerSafe Victoria, an anti-cull organization, spent about a month taking photos and documenting addresses of dangerous fences she found in Oak Bay, noting quite a few that looked really dangerous...Kristy Kilpatrick, president of the Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society...says she would encourage municipalities thinking of revamping their fencing bylaws to consider banning spiked fencing...
 

https://www.vicnews....ges-in-oak-bay/

Do these folks realize that fences serve to keep more than wildlife out of people's yards?

Edited by Nparker, 08 March 2019 - 09:54 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

city wide deer birth control.

 

https://www.timescol...ated-1.23658402

 

meanwhile deer hunting is big in bc.  i guess that's the urban/rural divide.  we give them birth control and in the country they just shoot thousands of them dead each year.  bc sells over 100,000 hunting licenses each year just to residents.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 March 2019 - 06:56 AM.