Going Green
Should we really be surprised that Republicans and Democrats have rigged the funding game in their favor ("No Major Party Left Behind," Dec. 18)? After all, they've rigged the entire election process to exclude competition. Courts (Republican- and Democrat-controlled) have upheld their legal discrimination under the ruse that too much choice would confuse voters. A free electoral system would no more naturally be a "two-party" system than would a free economy include just two airlines, two radio stations, or two cereal brands.
The Greens' lawsuit only skirts the real problem. Ballot access laws themselves are unjust and should be repealed. There shouldn't be any "public" financing at all, not because it's unfair to minor parties but simply because it's theft. A thief ought never be tolerated, no matter who he works for, and even if he's only stealing a penny from someone else. The Connecticut Constitution was based on this moral idea. No one has the right to benefits through government at the expense of others. "Public" financing is just another public stealing program.
Carl Vasser
Trumbull
No I-Deer
It is truly amazing how brainwashed the general public allows itself to become ("The Quiet Kill," Dec. 25). There was no deer overpopulation at the time of the enactment of the Deer Management Act (1974) since no one was really counting (as if they count now!). There were an estimated 3,000 to (at most) 7,000 in all of Connecticut!
There was no deer overpopulation when these so-called professional deer committees formed to deal with the "problem." It is exactly because of their push for more hunting that we have more deer; it is nature's way of making sure that their species doesn't die out. What a perfect way of "managing" deer — to ensure that after every hunt, deer will be replaced through twin births, and deer from other areas can move into an area that can support a high number of deer. If the carrying capacity were to exceed, deer would naturally regulate themselves.
It is also fact that the number of hunters are going down. For every 100 hunters that stop pursuing this bloodsport, only 68 replace them. In a few years, their numbers in Connecticut may well be under the present one percent. It is no wonder that groups like WhiteTail Solutions are worried that their recreation may soon come to a halt.
By the way, mating season coincides with only a short duration of the hunting season — certainly not from the middle of September until the end of January. (You'd think that hunters would know that!) But then again, this is all just part of the misinformation that is continually forced upon the public by the DEP and its henchmen.
Natalie Jarnstedt
Greenwich
The anonymous caller who used such colorful language to vent his frustrations, probably because the truth hurts, only proves that Ms. Jarnstedt hit a nerve!
There is nothing that is false or even incorrect in her LTE!
Perhaps this anonymous caller or any of his buddies would like to answer just a few simple questions, if they can (based on the caller’s language, he may have problems in expressing anything intelligently).
1.) What was the purpose of the passage of the Deer Management Act?
2.) Why has the DEP not succeeded in lowering deer numbers, which certainly didn't need it in 1974, after "managing" deer for all these years?
3.) When is deer mating season?
4.) What percentage of the CT population hunts?
5.)What is the percentage of the US population hunts?
After reading the comments made by the anonymous caller, I have one thing to say. This so-called hunter is a perfect example of a person who should not be permitted to have a gun for any reason. The anonymous caller certainly proves why normal people are opposed to hunters killing animals for fun. The caller does not have even 1/100 of the brain that Ms. Jarnstedt has. This hunter should crawl in a hole and hide after his abusive yapping.
GET RID OF HIM, AND BRING HER BACK!!!!
I can't speak to most of the points, I'm not a hunter although I have shot some pests -- rabbits munching away in my (organic, largely donated to soup kitchens) garden, or ground hogs who lived within the fence line of my yard where the dogs run. Having your dog present you with a living and very p'od woodchuck at 6:30 am is not a good way to start a day.
And no, I will not live-trap and cruelly relocate wildlife into territory likely already occupied, leaving them to fight for room or starve.
The specific tract of land I live on has no hunting pressure for decades that I can personally document. Not on my 12 acres, not on the adjacent town conservation land or nearby school lands or most of the adjoining residential areas.
But the family of deer that frequent my place -- I see them in the yard 3 to 4 times each week year round -- is now up to six very healthy adults -- and you can see the damage they are doing in my woods by the decline in young saplings in my woodlot. For that reason there will be hunting on my land this fall to manage that population before further damage is done.
The growth of deer populations is not from "twinning" or other responses to hunting, not at least as it's sole cause. It is, at least in part, from the deer's natural cycle. We lack large predators like wolves and cougars, something that is a GOOD thing in an area as populated as Connecticut today. We do have coyotes, which I have witnessed them running deer adjacent to my property, but I doubt they do much to control healthy, breeding age individuals.
So we're left with the only natural control being deer outstripping their food supply -- something that is determinental to other wildlife and plants as they reduce the biodiversity of an area by their overfeeding.
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Hi, Natalie. I gotta tell you I read your article in the Advocate. And you know what, I’m really tired of you friends of animal assholes. So I’ve taken up hunting again, as a matter of fact I’m going to kill several animals in your name, just for you. I’m gonna go out for shits and giggles and shoot ‘em like crazy. Your facts are all wrong and they’re foolish and you’re full of shit. Well, I’m tired of all your freakin’ games that all you assholes play. So I’m gonna have fun and I’m gonna kill ‘em just for shits and giggles anywhere from little bopeep, little, little, little, uh, I don’t know, uh, little squirrrels,birdies anywhere, all the way up – jackass.
I hope I've done the anonymous cowardly caller justice in transcribing his message correctly, word for word.