Will this be the tipping point?
Ms. Kilpatrick’s letter/pitch for contraception (Deer a shared responsibility, Oak Bay News, July 31) and the recent death of Ms. Holmes’ dog (Large buck kills dog, Oak Bay News, Sept. 23) left me shaking my head, yet again.
I get it, Kilpatrick was giving an overview of the ‘plan’ moving forward, but it further reinforced my feelings around this issue.
I’ve watched this deer debacle closely and this line, “Another goal is safety. For instance, no one wants to hit a deer and see it suffer or see a fawn or two as orphans...” made me emotional.
Was it anger, sadness, frustration? I wasn’t sure. When she led into the sentence with: “Another goal is safety...”, I thought, okay, we’re getting somewhere, but sadly no.
I have yet to read anything about the safety of young children. Deer are “wild” animals (quotes due to their apparent domestication over time – also, cue laughter from readers for the use of “wild”). In the end, this makes them unpredictable.
We have a young family and live near one of the deer’s major travel routes. We’ve seen up to five deer at a time and see them on a daily basis. My dog barks at them, they casually look up, and then do whatever they are doing. Two of my young children have been bitten by a tick, (one here in Oak Bay). If a deer killed my dog, I don’t know what I would have done.
Another concern is the rising prevalence of Lyme disease, which is devastating, and yes, not every tick carries it, and heck, maybe there’s been no reported cases of Lyme disease on Vancouver Island and the lower Gulf Islands, but I have seen first-hand what it can do to a young person.
And what’s scary about Lyme disease, is it doesn’t show up right away, but at any time in your life. So my wife and I may be rocked, not once, but twice if our kids are struck down by a “mystery” illness down the road.
Deer are not the only transporter of ticks, but they certainly are the most visible.
I get why people get behind a cause; I’m behind several causes myself. But how many passionate deer lovers have young children? When I read letters like this, and try to put it into perspective, I can’t.
What if a deer turned on a child, or a young child contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite, then what would the solution be?
Would all of you sit down and talk about it, and then talk about it some more, and still not arrive a solution that everybody agrees with?
W. Moore
Oak Bay