OP ED
Anyone unable to reach a decision about the Village Board’s planned program to allow indiscriminate bow hunting of deer on public and private lands should consider this one salient fact: If deer were domesticated and slaughtered in licensed slaughterhouses under government supervision, killing them as bow hunters do would be prohibited as cruel and inhumane.
Add that the hunting will be done from tree stands fundamentally dangerous to the hunters. Also add that the public will be using these properties for recreation at the same time, and you have a situation fraught with danger. Literally, this is an accident about to happen.
The only word to describe this policy is madness, sheer madness. My family and I moved to Croton 47 years ago, attracted by its rich history of toleration and compassion. These qualities all seem to be on the brink of being eradicated by fiat.
We are frankly puzzled by this Village Board’s fixation on killing innocent animals by the most cruel and inhumane methods to satisfy the misguided appetites of a small clique of bloodthirsty hunters. The Board’s purpose is to avoid having blood on their hands—but history will prove them wrong.
There is a stench of death about this Village Board when the most important piece of Village business is to rush into killing animals cruelly and painfully as a futile solution to a long-standing, almost universal problem.
Wanton, inhumane killing is not the answer. When will the Village Board learn this simple truth? They have yet to understand that the only important lesson in this life is to learn to live like human beings.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Animal Cruelty as Public Policy, 3: The Truth About Bow Hunting
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.
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.
Animal Cruelty as Public Policy, 2: Butchers with Bows and Arrows
OP ED
Is Croton now engaged in a bloody war against its animals? It has long been at war with its dogs.
The Village Code prohibits residents from walking a leashed dog in a Croton park. The sole exception to this prohibition is Croton Landing, but only because the Village accepted Federal funds for its development.
Now the Village suddenly wants to unleash a bloody, two-and-a-half-month, all-out campaign against a beautiful and graceful species, the White-Tailed Deer, using extremely cruel and inhumane methods.
Adequate fencing is one solution. We have no problem with deer. Our property is completely protected by fencing.
We understand that the arboretum was incorporated in 1994 as the “Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc.” In every dictionary, “sanctuary” means “a reserved area in which animals, especially wild animals, are protected from hunting.” Why have Village officials ignored this?
This summer the Village has been overrun by hordes of brown rats. In many ways, these disgusting, disease-carrying animals pose a greater threat to public health than any other animal. Yet the Village has done absolutely nothing about the massive rat infestation, except to hush it up.
Village officials seem anxious to have on their hands the blood of innocent deer killed barbarously and indiscriminately. Our family wants no part of their animal cruelty. We ask them not to do this in our name.
Is Croton now engaged in a bloody war against its animals? It has long been at war with its dogs.
The Village Code prohibits residents from walking a leashed dog in a Croton park. The sole exception to this prohibition is Croton Landing, but only because the Village accepted Federal funds for its development.
Now the Village suddenly wants to unleash a bloody, two-and-a-half-month, all-out campaign against a beautiful and graceful species, the White-Tailed Deer, using extremely cruel and inhumane methods.
Adequate fencing is one solution. We have no problem with deer. Our property is completely protected by fencing.
We understand that the arboretum was incorporated in 1994 as the “Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc.” In every dictionary, “sanctuary” means “a reserved area in which animals, especially wild animals, are protected from hunting.” Why have Village officials ignored this?
This summer the Village has been overrun by hordes of brown rats. In many ways, these disgusting, disease-carrying animals pose a greater threat to public health than any other animal. Yet the Village has done absolutely nothing about the massive rat infestation, except to hush it up.
Village officials seem anxious to have on their hands the blood of innocent deer killed barbarously and indiscriminately. Our family wants no part of their animal cruelty. We ask them not to do this in our name.
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