We just have to kill more deer (Opinion)

For the second year in a row Saddle River, NJ has a contract with United Bow Hunters of New Jersey to cull the deer population in their town. Cull is a polite word. But let’s call a spade a spade. In order to protect the quality of life and safety of the residents of Saddle River, they finally decided it was time to take out as many deer as they possibly could.

Saddle River finally became so fed up with deer over taking their neighborhoods that in 2018 they began to fight. And they won the right to start removing what was becoming a true menace in their town. According to an article on NJ.com, the United Bow Hunters of New Jersey killed 135 deer last year. This was the first contract in Bergen county that allowed licensed hunters to help shrink the deer population there.

But the problem persists in many other counties and deer continue to encroach on private properties and, more significantly, roadways, where they are a true danger to motorists. Insurance companies have websites dedicated to this danger. The problem is so pervasive that there are attorneys who specialize in animal vehicle collisions and human beings are suffering because people don’t want to kill deer.

The bottom line is, it’s only getting worse and until we bring deer hunting to more counties in New Jersey, we all have to succumb to the control that the deer have over us on the roads. Not to mention the coyotes that seem to show up in areas where there are deer around.

There are enough potential dangers out there what with winter weather beginning in New Jersey, clogged roadways, and poor and distracted driving. So it just doesn’t seem fair that we should be at the mercy of a family of deer or a single agitated deer during the rut when all they want to do is mate and all we want to do is get home safely to our families. Animals certainly have their place in NJ and in our world, but we need to step up our culling of the deer population to keep NJ safe for the humans who live here, too.

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