Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus, Animal Rights Idiots From New Jersey

I know it’s Monday morning and after sitting here in camp for most of the weekend staring at the rain pouring down and shivering from the cold, God knows I need a good laugh.

Sane people have come to the realization that the most effective way to counter claims from animal rights groups is to simply expose them for what they are. Once again I have for you a gem - a letter to the Asbury Park Press from  Doris Lin, an issues specialist for the Animal Protection Political Action Committee. An issues specialist, huh? That must make her well informed, accurate and full of facts. Let’s see.

When I first began reading her article, I thought that perhaps someone from the far left was actually going to present a bonefide arguement to oppose hunting in New Jersey. The basis of her story stems from a proposal by the Monmouth County Parks System to allow deer hunting again this year in some of the parks.

Park System officials admit that the deer are not biologically overpopulated. Why do they want to have a hunt?

In their Deer Management Background Report, they state that one of the objectives of a deer management program is “to maximize the recreational and economic benefits derived from this renewable natural resource.” This hunt is a recreational hunt and the deer are merely a “renewable natural resource.”

Even though I disagree with Lin on this issue, she at least presents a subject, that if her facts are correct, that could reasonably be argued. I think it makes good business sense to “maximize the recreational and economic benefits derived from this renewal natural resource”.

The problem here is Lin presents her case and then abandons it for the usual mantra of lies to make her case that she is opposed to hunting and not interested in protecting animals.

Some park neighbors believe that hunting will resolve issues of car/deer collisions, Lyme disease, and deer eating their landscaping.

However, hunting increases car/deer collisions because hunters scare deer out of the woods. Deer hunting does not reduce Lyme disease, because the ticks’ main host is mice, not deer. Pesticides such as Damminix that target the ticks directly have proven highly effective in reducing Lyme disease. Nor does hunting protect landscaping because deer-preferred plants will always attract deer. The effective methods of protecting landscaping are fencing, using deer repellents and choosing landscape plants that do not attract deer.

Rolling on the floor, laughing my _______ off! Hunters chase deer from the woods and scare them into the path of cars? I have to say this is a new one for me. An issues specialist for an animal rights group and this is one of her specialties? I wasn’t aware that deer hunters could hunt deer at night in New Jersey, as this is clearly when the vast majority of car/deer collisions happen.

According to Lin, deer don’t carry Lyme disease, mice do. Does that mean she advocates killing innocent mice? Deer must also travel for miles and miles in New Jersey in order to eat the preferred shrubbery of Monmouth County residents. She does by the way, encourage the use of a pesticide that will pollute our environment in order to curb Lyme disease.

Two years ago, Park System officials presented deer population estimates to support their hunt proposal, but they have no updated estimates. Why? Because hunting does not reduce the deer population. After a hunt, there is more food per deer and the does will give birth to more twins and triplets. This is one reason our deer population has not gone down, despite the fact that more than 58,000 deer were killed by hunters in the state during the 2004-2005 hunting season.

Oh, Come on!! Hunting does not reduce the deer population? Then who in the hell nearly drove some game species to extinction many years ago before people knew better? You can’t use supposed facts to argue both sides of an issue. If Lin was an “issues specialist” she would understand that wildlife management officials are working toward maintaining population levels, not reducing them. In addition, she is mixing together two seperate entities to create a smoke screen. The Monmouth County Park System is a complete and seperate entity from the Department of Environmental Protection. It’s the park officials in the county that are considering opening land up to hunting.

I will give her credit in that some studies have shown that a quick reduction in population will cause a spike in reproduction rates but intelligent wildlife scientists will factor this information into their wildlife management plans and goals.

The hunt is also absurd because the thousands of dollars being spent to administer the hunt could be used to install sprinklers in the park buildings.

Huh?!? Sprinklers? Isn’t this discussion about protecting animal rights? Lin spends the next few paragraphs spewing forth about the need for sprinklers in county buildings.

After presenting all of her profound knowledge and facts about why deer hunting in the Monmouth County Parks shouldn’t be allowed, she, the “issues specialist” wraps up the debate with this profound, fact supported statement.

Hunting is a failed experiment and doesn’t solve anything. The Board of Recreation Commissioners and the Monmouth County freeholders should reject any plan to allow hunting in our county parks.

According to her reasoning and logic, a more accurate statement would have been this: Hunting shouldn’t be allowed in Monmouth County Parks because we need sprinklers in our buildings.

Tom Remington