Update: It seems Kos is receiving backlash for the idea (surprise!) and has tabled the idea for the time being. Via Cleveland.com:
“I’m not talking about it again until November and then I will consider whether to introduce it to council or not,” he said. “The culling ordinance just went through and we need to concentrate on that. The paintball idea has become a distraction.”
***
“I really don’t want to deal with phone calls of a polka-dot deer running around town because it’s gotten hit with 17 different colors of paint balls.”
That quote is from Geoff Westerfield, Ohio Division of Wildlife assistant wildlife management supervisor, responding to queries on whether or not he’d endorse the use of paintball guns to scare away deer for cities or suburbs dealing with deer control problems. Let that image sink into your brain for a second.
Specifically, Avon Lake councilman David Kos is proposing changes to the law that would allow residents to go all Dwight Schrute on Bambi.
“It’s been discussed with ODNR that shooting a deer near the hoof with a paintball gun will get them to scatter,” Kos told the Chronicle Telegram. But of course, the ODW isn’t exactly in lock step with that idea, as the esteemed Mr. Westerfield notes above.
But what the hell, let’s talk about the how and why of Kos’s idea.
Kos said multiple residents have said deer will stick around in yards even when people stand in their backyards and yell or bang on pots and pans.
“How do you get them out without putting yourself into direct conflict with them?” Kos asked. “This was one of the alternatives offered, to allow residents to shoot at a deer’s feet to get them off the property.”
The city’s weapons and explosives chapter of the codified ordinances includes a section that prohibits anyone from using slingshots, bows and arrows and air rifles to “purposely or recklessly” shoot projectiles.
Paintball guns are not mentioned, Kos said, and he would like to see the ordinance, enacted in 1958, modernized to have paintball guns coincide with the new deer legislation.
“Kids, put the videogames down. Go outside and shoot some deer.”
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2014.
This is every bit as cruel as the show horses who have their flesh cut just above their hoofs and covered with diesel fuel so that they “prance” in competitions shown by people for competition and MONEY! Screw you wackos from Avon Flake. You totally blew it, admit it, when you refused to allow PZP immunocontraception/birth control. Avon Flake COULD HAVE BEEN a pilot for this national program on free ranging deer that has already proven 90 % effective in OTHER states (not repugnican-good-ol-boys OHIYA) and many other mammals for some time. Idiots. Their sheer stupidity confirms what I aready thought: this is the LOCUS of our idiocracy.
Wow. Your statement is so ludicrous I’d be insulted by your screen name if I was female. Comparing simple harassment of deer to slicing the hooves of show horses is asinine.
Use paint balls full of water.
Or get a potato launcher with water balloons.
Culling the herd is probably the best option out there. Yes, shooting them with paint balls is cruel and should not be done. But you can’t let the deer herd keep growing and growing and growing, something has to be done.
Ohio needs to commit to killing deer, PERIOD. These stopgap measures are never going to make a dent in the problem. Allow hunting all 12 months of the year, for starters.
And Miss Vivisection is overdue for her next “let’s throw paint on a fur coat” PETA jam-bor-ee.
Calm your tits, WomanWhoKnowsBest.
(What an ironic nickname…LOL.)