On their conscience

From the Houston Chronicle, February 4, 2005

The timeless battle between humans and wildlife is growing ugly in San Jacinto county, where herds of white-tailed deer numbering in the hundreds relentlessly chew their way through garden and forest, possibly upsetting the balance of nature and endangering their own future.

I wonder how many others read that with puzzled mind this morning. It's the possibly upsetting the balance of nature bit that stuns me. The fact is that more than a handful of people decided waybackwhen that living on Lake Livingston would be a peachy thing to do. So they came and they built and they paved and they added on. And I wonder just what they thought the previous dwellers there were going to do, exactly. The deer are possibly upsetting the balance of nature? Ha! That'd be laughable if it weren't so sad and wrong. So, what's the solution going to be? Well, cull the numbers of the deer, of course. Down the heard to a manageable size of 200 or so that will be appealing when driving down the street or sipping margaritas at dusk on your back porch, but not so many as to get in the way of your newfound gardening hobby. Sick, just sick.