To Whom It May Concern

Deer = Menace To Society

Oh, how I remember during my early teenage years, living on our farm, how I hoped that people who would ask to hunt on our land wouldn't be killing deer, because deer were so precious looking, so innocent, God forbid someone try and hurt little Bambi.

Now I would readily pay people to hunt them outright. There are now more deer on the planet, by far, then there ever have been in the history of the planet. They are a vermin scum of the earth. Having hit three of them with two different cars, you could say that my attitudes about deer have changed. Today there are more than 27 million deer roaming around our nation. There are more than 1.5 million deer/vehicle collisions annually, resulting in well over a billion dollars in damages and injuries, and that doesn't even take into account the death tolls. In 1994, 211 people died in deer/vehicle collisions.

In October of 2001, I was driving my Chrysler Lebaron convertible along, when BOOM, a deer was in front of me and I struck it. I never even had time to touch my brakes before the impact, the airbag in my car deployed, giving me a bloody nose and ripping my chin open (I advocate the use of airbags though, they are important safety devices). The first thought that went thru my head was: "how the hell did that bastard get INTO my car to kick me???". This was before I realized it was the airbag that blasted me.

The car I drive presently is a 1991 Dodge Shelby Daytona IROC. Purchased at a police auction for a mere 190 dollars, I spent more than 3000 in time and money putting the car back together. Then in December of 2001, I was driving along highway 66 again, and there were deer in both lanes as I crested a hill, and I glanced one of them off the side of my driver's front fender. This was extremely irritating. Then in September of 2002, I hit one again, on the SAME HIGHWAY, so hard off the passenger side that it ripped the headlight cover clean off and bent the hood in, along with pushing the fender back so I could not open the passenger door.

I have also hit a dog with my Daytona, and a cow with my Turbo Sundance, but those are other stories. As you can see, my dislike for deer was developed by a series of mishaps with them, leading me to wonder: Why are deer so incredibly suicidal? And also, why do they choose my car to end thier lives against? Of course, my friend Travis has a better idea as to what is going on.

Travis asked me one day if I had the deer whistles on my car. I laughed, because I have read several times that they don't do any good at all (independent studies done have shown negligible differences between having the whistles and not having them.) Travis said that I most likely have them on backwards, to which everyone present laughed, myself included. The thought of deer, merrily going about thier business in a corn field, suddenly hearing my car, and running as fast as they can because they are attracted to the noise, and throwing themselves into the path of my vehicle, well, that was good for a pretty decent chuckle.

Laws on deer hunting were brought about to protect deer around the turn of the century when thier numbers had dwindled to about 300,000. Now they have obviously made more than a comeback. They no longer have much if any of natural enemies, grizzly bears numbers are way down, mountain lions are rarely ever seen in most areas east of the Rockies. Overpopulation of deer destroy even thier own habitat, not allowing the natural progression of forestry to occur, this in turn significantly reduces the numbers of rare songbirds and other animals who depend on woodland areas to live.

It's really high time that deer are hunted year round, any weapons, no limit to how many a hunter can bag. The bleeding heart animal rights activists should all be forced to drive Geo Metros and have collisions at 55 mph with deer until they realize that, yes, my goodness, there truly is a problem that needs to be addressed.