OP ED
Let’s face facts: Overpopulation of deer is not a local problem but rather a countywide problem that calls for a countywide solution. And bow hunting, which solves nothing, is not an effective tool to control deer population density.
On the contrary, it is a recreational pursuit to satisfy a small clique of bloodthirsty hunters callous to their cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. At least one half the deer wounded by bow hunters are never recovered and die slow, painful, agonizing deaths. Besides, it is a pastime dangerous to both the public as well as the insensitive bow hunters who ply this primitive trade.
The Village of Croton-on-Hudson will hold a public hearing next Tuesday, Sept. 7, on its proposal to allow bow hunting on public lands and private properties in Croton But what is bow hunting really like?
The writer of the following graphic description of bow hunting is no animal bleeding-heart. He is the late Clare Conley, respected editor of Outdoor Life and Field & Stream magazines.
“I was afield with three hunters when we jumped a doe that ran in front of us. One of the men drew his bow and shot. The arrow went through the doe’s neck. We all saw the arrow sticking out of both sides of the doe’s neck as she bounded away.
"The blood trail was easy to find, but we waited the usual hour for her to lie down, stiffen up and eventually die. We followed the scarlet trail for more than an hour expecting to find her dead. We came to several pools of blood with prints of her knees beside them, where she had gone down to hang her head, and bleed in the bright sun. We saw spots where she had stumbled, but still her life blood ran, and still she went on.
“At last we found her. She was dying. She was on her knees and hocks. Her ears, no longer the wonderful, alert warning system to detect any danger, were sagging. Her head was down. Her nose was in her blood. We could hear her breath bubbling in the warm blood.
“Somehow the doe lurched up. Stumbling, bounding, blindly into the brush, she managed to reach the rim of a plateau and disappear. She was nowhere in sight. We fanned out and combed the hillside where we lost her tracks among a maze of other deer tracks. We failed to retrieve her.
“We lost four wounded deer on that one hunting trip, but the doe I saw dying stayed with me. Her heartbroken, dulling eyes haunted me. At odd moments I’d see her, wild and free, then dying in the sun, her breath choking in a pool of blood.
“I resolved never again to shoot any living creature with a bow.”
Residents of Croton and of neighboring communities: Imagine your children playing in your backyard or standing at a bus stop and witnessing such a heartbreaking spectacle as the slow death of a sentient animal. All people of good will are urged to turn out at the public hearing on Sept. 7 to protest this futile and cruel exercise being advocated under the pretext of animal population control.
