e-KNOW editorial

Urban deer are once again at the top of the ‘issues’ list in our region.

Is it the biggest problem in our region? Not even close.

But it is an issue that incites powerful passions in people on many sides of the complex equation.

A recent approach by some municipalities in the East Kootenay (Cranbrook, Kimberley and Invermere) has been to cull deer, with the use of clover traps and bolt guns. No fuss, no muss, trap, bam; Bob’s yer uncle, one less urban deer to terrorize a community full of the most dangerous predators in the world. Repeat, stir, shake and grind – feed the homeless untested meat, move onto the next profitable locale.

The City of Cranbrook is the most recent community to come under fire from some residents after ‘secretly’ approving the cull of 30 more mule deer within city limits.

Cranbrook got off lucky last year when it was the first out of the culling gate with a provincial government permit to conduct a cull. Kimberley was up next and just as it was finishing its allotted cull period, anti-deer cull people began to rise up.

By the time Invermere had the clover traps, it was a full blown ‘us versus them’ battle royale. With Facebook pages set up, new acronyms established and a lawsuit launched, and with alleged threats of intimidation and neighbour snarling at neighbour over differing views on how to deal with the ‘problem deer,’ the matter had come home to 21^st Century rural B.C.

There are the ‘do-gooders,’ the folks who don’t believe in the use of killing as a means to an end, and there are those who could give a deer’s ass, if you’ll excuse the bluntness.

Through all this, the poor bastages at the District of Invermere (and now the City of Cranbrook), normally hired to deal with infrastructure of all types and the general operations of a municipality, have to set aside usual duties and become Solomonesque arbiters, seeking solutions to a new age rural problem.

They hear cries of ‘danger’ and they react. One cannot blame them for reacting, because we taxpayers are the ones forcing their hands.

However, dealing with the matter in apparent secret is not Solomonesque – in fact it is merely inviting scorn and mistrust. As a result, the city has a wee storm on its hand and good luck to them as they try to maneuver through the wickets on this one.

All that said – we have a solution for the municipalities on this issue.

Put down the bolt guns and put aside the clover nets and the placards for a second.

Why is this issue an issue in the first place? We dare say because of dog control bylaws, which became the norm in most municipalities throughout the 1990s.

With dog bylaws in place, fewer kids and sundry dog walkers are being attacked by stray dogs. Hands up – who remembers how common it was to hear about people being savaged by dogs back in the day? Far more than now thanks to dog control bylaws.

And with that thought, who remembers seeing dogs chasing deer? Good or bad, right or wrong, those acts kept the deer skittish about coming into towns.

Now that the deer are here full-time, they’re doing what comes naturally to wild animals – they’re protecting their young and they are at best a flighty, ding-dongy kind of beast – easily frightened and chased away.

So… with the concept of dog control in mind, we recommend municipalities enact ‘deer control bylaws.’ Structure them just like the dog control bylaws – and levy fines at the owners if they are not ‘kept under control.’

In this instance, who owns the deer? This is the best part; the Province of B.C. ‘owns’ the deer, evidenced by the fact they demand permits for municipalities to whack ‘em, so – fine them when their deer are becoming urban problems. Simple and easy and it would force the province to do what it should have been doing in the first place, dealing with their freaking deer.

That should solve the immediate problem of urban deer, which causes derision and separation in our small communities, but it won’t solve the gulf in which boils a debate on humanity.

We are taxpayers in our own towns but we are also taxpayers in this province, which means we should have the say in how this problem (growing steadily around the province) is handled by our elected representatives in Victoria.

So to them we request: put aside the partisanship childishness for a day you scabby lot of party sycophants and spare the municipal governments the task that your employees should be handling.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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