Deer in the yard

Check out www.Deerintheyard.com  

The first video on there is really great.

A link for us? 

The mama doe is calling her fawn. It's hilarious.

Sandy Baker

Here's something interesting.  Found this looking over Sandy's web site.  http://www.deerproofyourgarden.com/

Apparantly Solon co-sponsored the April 2009 seminar in Pepper Pike.  Does anyone remember hearing about that?

If you like, I can try to put something together over the weekend.

---

This is great. I have a terrible headache so will write an intro for Sandy in the AM.
I have a lovely photo of her. She is very pretty

---

Found this very brief mention in the minutes for Council:

Council 10047 April 20, 2009

COMMENTS FROM THE ADMINISTRATION:

Mayor Patton said Sunday is the Earth Day celebration and encouraged residents to attend at the Community Park Parking lot.

Mayor Patton said on Saturday, April 25th, Solon will co-sponsor a seminar regarding options for deer proofing gardens. The seminar will take place at the Daisy Hill Nursery in Hunting Valley and at the Orange Public Library. Information is available on the city website and there is no cost for the seminar.

Maybe this is why they ignored her attempts to contact them. They figure they've already done the seminar. "Too bad if you missed the mention!"

---

I do but it was barely a bleep on the radar. When I brought her here the first time she presented at Petitti's, Eagle Creek, Seven Hills Rec center (the mayor let us use it for free) and the Aurora parks and rec center. Every venue was packed. I got her on the Sat morning radio show too with Anthony Petitti. It was a huge success and both garden centers asked her to come back. People LOVE her. She really knows her stuff. She shows a video interviewing people that have beautiful gardens, tons of roses even.

The OH State Master Gardeners extension co-hosted the Seven Hills venue.

The guy that won the Scarecrow (over $100) at the Eagle Creek seminar said to me last year that even his Day Lillies have come back and the Scarecrow works like a charm. Unfortunately he will not go public. Sandy asked him to take photos of his yard and he could be anonymous. No reply. What is wrong with people.

The folks in Grand Haven MI started what they call their Deer Garden or something like that and Sandy gave a presentation there. Actually that's a really great idea for us to propose. A community deer friendly garden. We can teach the lets kill to protect tulips crowd it can be done!

---

xx

Web Site Launch #2

Despite the Web site being launched to the media at the March 9th Safety meeting, six weeks later some people feel the site still isn't ready.

Since then, the home page and sidebar have been reworked, terminology has been simplified.

What will it take to make it ready?

Cayuga Alternatives

A couple of items of interest from Cayuga Alternatives page.

Interesting idea, does any of this apply to Solon?

RADS - Russo doesn't like signs, but actually this makes some interesting sense from a Safety point of view.

Fencing - People say this looks bad

Speeding - This has been a hard thing to overcome on BB Rd, I wonder if we could get them to do anything in high deer areas.

Web Suggestions

>
> As I promised earlier, I looked over the homepage and have a few suggestions.
>
> 1. The sidebar: I find the arrows confusing.
> I'd make all the topics one shade and color.

Let's talk about that one, I think it can be fixed.

Petition Drive

Rough Draft, add suggestions on comments...

Our petition drive has started, here's a few things all circulators should know.

1. Get your petition from Lane, with a number.  We're tracking all petitions being circulated by a unique petition number.
2. DO NOT fill in the number of signatures, even when all 43 are collected, this number will be filled in  by a petition consultant who will verify signatures.
3. DO NOT sign your own petition, sign another circulators petition,
4. When you complete a petition, be sure to complete the last page (except for the number of signatures), return it to Lane and get a new numbered petition. 
5. For your first time circulating a petition, pair up with an experienced circulator so you can learn from them.
6. When at a public place its better to ask for signatures on the way out, rather than on the way in.
7. Ask if they are a Solon resident AND a registered voter, this is important.
8. Then ask them if they'd sign a petition regarding putting deer culling on the ballot so the people can decide, don't debate the issue with them, this will take time and won't address the main point of getting their signature.
9. If they want more information you can direct to the website solondeer.com, but tell them signing the petition puts it on the ballot for the citizens to decide, signing isn't saying they are for ot against it just lets the people decide.
10. If someone tries to engage you in a debate, politely refuse to debate them and walk away from them.

If you have any more questions, contact Lane.

FAQ Articles

Need Articles to more fully answer these questions on FAQs page.

Q. But the dead deer will go to feed people? The city spent over $500/deer to have them killed. You could feed more people with $500 of groceries than you can with the usable meat from one deer.

Q. Doesn’t the Ohio Division of Wildlife, (ODOW) and the administrators in Solon know what’s best? Isn’t this their business? Yes, this is their business. In fact, the ODOW gets its funding from the sale of hunting licenses. This presents a bias and conflict of interest. The USDA Wildlife Services (WS) serves as the hunters for the nation. They are paid by salaried tax dollars. If they’re not killing wildlife, they’re not being paid. Another conflict of interest. Many of our city administrators, including the Public Works Commissioner who is putting the Deer Mgmt Plan together for the city, are hunters. Another conflict of interest. Are they really doing what’s best for the city or for themselves?

Both these agencies ODOW and USDA WS receive the bulk of their funding from hunting interests. Their goal is to expand hunting into urban environments and thus earn more in hunting fees. They have a serious conflict of interest.


Q. What about the destruction of the understory? 

A field researcher for the Metropark’s admitted that no in depth study has ever been done to show what is causing the understory to decline. And, the Metroparks has been killing it’s deer for the past 14 years in a row, yet they’re still having a problem. If it truly was the deer, we should see an improvement, but we don't?

Q. If non-lethal is effective, why aren’t cities using it? 
Communities all over the country are using non-lethal methods with great success. How else can they protect the roads in states such as Montana where populations of large animals, such as deer, elk and moose, are much too large to manage by hunting. They use Streiter Lites. 

Q.  What about Trap and Release?

Ohio Law, influenced by ODOW hunting interests, does not allow trap and release.

Bow Hunting

Bow Hunting was proposed as part of the Deer Management Plan, this may seem attractive as a cheaper solution, but it has its share of problems.

Some issues are:

• Bowhunting is inhumane and wasteful.
• Bowhunters do not want to talk about the wounding issue and archery wounding is the most denied problem in bowhunting.
• Wounding and crippling losses are inevitable.
• Shot placement is, for all practical purposes, random due to the difficulty in shooting arrows accurately. There is absolutely no sure way to kill a deer instantly with a bow.
• More often than not, poorly hit deer are lost and not recovered.
• The main cause of infection in the wound is today’s multi-bladed Broadhead arrow
• Almost all abdominally shot deer die a slow death from peritonitis with the average time of death measured in agonizing days or weeks rather than in minutes or hours.
• The use of bowhunting as a method to control deer population densities is ineffective. Bowhunting is not a population control measure; it is a recreational pursuit.

Embed Bow hunting document here...

[Ed note] - After 3 repeated requests with no summary for posting, I finally read the document and wrote the summary and posting.

Organization

See Notes in Orange

-------- Original Message --------

0) Subject:	Re: Fw: Bow Hunting
Date:	Sat, 9 Apr 2011 08:13:44 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Lane
To:	Heinz , John

1) I would not put Stanek's reply on our website. We need to be prepared though if he should use that again so here is some stuff to get started with. 2) The crossbow comes from approximately 650 b. c. Improvements do not make this fact any less relevant Crossbows show NO difference in wounding rates.Studies, once published are still valuable to quote no matter how old they are, as long as you are quoting relevant information. If a study showed 54% wounding rate and some of those weapons are still being used, that study is still valid. In NJ, many of those same weapons are being used. Now crossbows are in use, but they don't discount any past study. Our Fish and Wildlife division are quoting studies from the 1960s in their reports. Doesn't mean those 1960 studies are fully valid, just means they got information from them to use in their reports. And they must be mentioned. 3) Brw, I would remove that article about the poaching incident in Mentor. The comment was that we need a longer hunting season. Not good. 4) The PPike gardening class might be added to the Sandy Baker stuff. It should be prefaced by the fact that PP Mayor Akers brought the Deer Dr back for an encore because she is so good.  John, my sincere apologies. There is an attachment with a letter from Akers singing her praises.   5) She is not your average 'how to protect your tulips'  expert. She is THE numero uno. --- On Sat, 4/9/11, John  wrote: From: John Subject: Re: Fw: Bow Hunting To: "Heinz Cc: "Lane Date: Saturday, April 9, 2011, 10:17 AM Heinz Knall wrote: 6) OK..................... well, that one might be best left off the web site.  "Hearts and Minds"   We can't win hearts and minds if we throw insults at the other team.  7) It's on the work blog which isn't indexed by Google search nor linked to by any public sites...  It's important info so I wanted to get it out of my enormous email queue to a place where just we can see it for reference or to decide what we want to do with it. Heinz Knall "With Dog, all things are possible, and usually occur when you are not at home."

---

-------- Original Message --------

8) Subject:	Fw: Solon--Deer
Date:	Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:39:19 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Lane Ferrante
To:	John Nolan , Heinz Knall

9) First communication. She wrote to all separately . The attached is a testimonial from Pepper Pike mayor. --- On Wed, 2/16/11, Sandy Baker <wrote:To:pelunis@hotmail.com Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 10:19 PM 10) February 17, 2011   Dear Robert Pelunis:   As a community leader faced with the impact of deer damage in parks, yards, and gardens, and conflict among your constituents regarding an effective solution, you are not alone. Local municipalities must resolve deer-related challenges, and there seems to be no rewarding answer.   But there is.  My work as a consultant in communities throughout the Northeastern United States shows that understanding fosters solutions for passionate stakeholders.    Government leaders have retained me to conduct seminars, give consultations, and educate home gardeners, parks’ stewards, growers, landscapers, nurseries’ owners, and the general public about reducing and preventing deer damage. Interviews with the local media, which I am available for, impact public perceptions; government leadership is seen as being responsive and open to deer management alternatives that address the concerns of all.  I have been dubbed “The Deer Doctor” because I help communities solve their deer-related challenges.   “How to Deer Proof Your Garden” seminars teach people how to protect plantings through a customizable Five Step Plan that introduces understanding of deer behavior which leads to planting success.  Last fall the mayors of five cities in Ohio pooled their resources to present my plan to their communities.  The reasonable cost was quickly defrayed by the reduction in deer damage to plant materials, the positive feedback generated through media coverage, and the resultant goodwill generated among community interest groups.  The attached letter will give you an idea of the response to my program from elected officials. . I urge you to plan now for a more beautiful community in the spring.  Take the first step by visiting www.deerproofyourgarden.com, then contact me at 585.338.2247 or contact@deerproofyourgarden.com for more information about seminars, scheduling, and fees.   Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to further communication with you.     Sandy Baker 11) Attachment  Notes: 0) 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11)

Sandy Baker

The PPike gardening class might be added to the Sandy Baker stuff. It should be prefaced by the fact that PP Mayor Akers brought the Deer Dr [don't use this name, its a hunter name see other post] back for an encore because she is so good.  

Could add to class post if I knew this was taught by or written by Sandy Baker

John, my sincere apologies. There is an attachment with a letter from Akers singing her praises. [This was at the bottom of an email Subject: Bow Hunting, It took several searches of over 500 emails to find this doc it was Subject: Fw Solon--Deer] She is not your average 'how to protect your tulips'  expert. She is THE numero uno.

Embedded Pic X-Large

FAQ Updates

Just wanted to tell you that the USDA does not get its funding from the sales of hunting licenses like the ODNR. Tax dollars pay their salaries. Their job is to kill our wildlife and people have to know that if they aren't killing animals they aren't being paid. You have this on the QUESTIONS page so we better correct that.

Can you please add WILDLIFE SERVICES after USDA?  YES-DONE!

--------
Also, and I think this is important. I would remove that part about the ODNR say the deer acclimate to the Strieter Lites. Right off the bat people who know absolutely nothing about them will see a negative, make them question their efficacy.

Q. We tried Strieter Lites and saw no difference in DVAs.

This statement isn't accepted by all city officials and its successful use on large herds makes this unlikely. 

--------

ODOW made the allegation that deer become acclimated to DVA deterrents. A study shows 10 year effectiveness. This self serving statement is not born out by the facts. Click here for a discussion on this topic.
YES BUT!!!  This is what they said, do we really want to leave the question unanswered?  
-----------
We have to introduce them by sending the message out THEY WORK.  I would get rid of that survey report for now and hold on to it in case we need it later. Let's just show all the positives.

 I sent you 2 PDF files from John Strieter showing the successes. Let's put those up instead.

---

Also that part about human life being more important the animal life is a big no no. We're playing right into the opposite side's hands. You really never want to say that. We are saying that ALL life should be valued and respected. We really don't want to go down that road. It opens up a can of worms and distracts from the real issue.

Q. Isn't human life more important than animal life when we're talking about all these car accidents?
Killing deer doesn't stop car accidents, the city admits that.  But there are deterrents that dramatically reduce car accidents to near zero.


YES BUT!!!  This is what people are saying, do we really want to leave the question unanswered?  Added back out 5/1/11

---

REMOVED:

Q. We tried Strieter Lites and saw no difference in DVAs.

Q. Isn't human life more important than animal life when we're talking about all these car accidents?

Q.  USDA Wildlife Services & ODNR/ODOW are the experts and they say that lethal methods must be used.

Both these agencies receive the bulk of their funding from hunting interests.  Their goal is to expand hunting into urban environments and thus earn more in hunting fees.  They have a serious conflict of interest.

Q. LYME Disease
Q added 5/1/11

I'd like to do a piece on Lyme Disease with some stats and links back to the CDC.  Do you think there would be any interest? 


There is no issue with Lyme disease here so we should definitely  not add yet another problem and hand our opposition another scare tactic to use against us.


That's fine, I know we don't have a problem with it, but I recall some hysterical individuals mentioning it at the meetings.  We can wait and see if it becames an issue later.


Yep. It won't though. The --- mayor Akers in Pepper Pike tried to use that as a scare tactic but then stopped because he knew the facts spoke differently. We are so lucky that we don't have to deal with that. Our friends in MD, CT, NJ, etc all have Lyme to defend too.


YES BUT!!!  This is what they said, do we really want to leave the question unanswered?

Rebound

http://web.linkny.com/~civitas/page448.html

 

Perfect example of rebound and how deer mgmt causes the deer herds to balloon.

If it's so humane why is it shielded from the public

Virtually all programs involving government-sponsored killing of suburban deer do not allow concerned citizens or members of the media to observe, much less document, the killing process or its aftermath. Consequently, the times, dates, and locations of the killing are not made public. Officials usually explain this as being necessary for safety reasons.

But Tim Setnicka, former Superintendent of the Channel Islands National Park, reveals a different motive. During his 30-year career with the Park Service, Setnicka supervised numerous large-scale wildlife killing programs. In 2005, he began to speak out against what he came to consider park superintendents "playing god."

"We never allowed the media to accompany the hunters to film the hunting activity. Safety reasons were always given as reasons for denial of their request. The real reason is that we wanted to avoid images of the ugliness of the hunt," admits Setnicka. "You watch the life drain out of their eye, which becomes dull as they die. This is an impossible image to sell the public or politicians, which is why no photos are allowed."

Inhumane Death

The following is undercover footage of the Summit County Metroparks deer slaughter where the park employees are being trained by Solon's former wildlife extermination company sharpshooter, White Buffalo, President Anthony DeNicola. After shooting the deer, plastic bags were placed over their heads as in Solon.

WARNING This video contains graphic images

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sf2NSLhb4c

This video was shown at a public meeting at the Solon public library in Dec.'04 before the decision makers hired Mr. Denicola. Many city employees and public officials attended and did watch this video and yet they proceeded with their lethal plan.

After viewing SHARK’s video footage, all three vets declared that the deer in question was still alive minutes after being shot while a bag was pulled over her head.

Hi, my name is Dr. Bennett Fagin, and I'm a veterinarian, a licensed veterinarian in the state of Ohio. I've been a veterinarian for 22 years. I’ve just finished watching video footage of a deer kill in the Summit Metro Park, and I've watched the footage from before the deer was shot until the deer was dragged off of the field and in my professional opinion; the deer was not killed with the first shot. The first shot was the only shot, and I do not understand why an additional shot wasn't rendered after the deer was shot the first time. A bag was placed over its head, and the deer actually struggled more after the bag was placed over its head than it was after it was shot. I realize that muscle contractions occur for minutes following a fatal shot, but what I visualized was more than muscle contractions or fasciculation. The animal actually thrashed when its leg was grabbed and in my professional opinion, the manner in which this animal was shot is inhumane. I think the animal should have been shot again, and someone at close range should have placed a shot either in its head or through its heart and humanely killed it. Thank you.

My name is Dr. Alice Jeromin. I am a registered veterinarian in the state of Ohio for the past 15 years. I just had the opportunity to view a shot of the deer kill in the Summit County Metro Park. The circumstance was that the deer was apparently shot somewhere in the upper body, left for dead and then when approached by someone, started to fight and flail. They then put a plastic bag around his head in an effort to drag him off the field, and he fought the entire way. In my opinion after seeing this video, after this deer was shot with one shot, that deer was not dead. What was done to that deer was extremely inhumane in my opinion. He was still alive, and that deer was suffocated apparently then by the person coming up and placing that plastic bag around his head.

I'm Dr. Richard Slenn, graduated from vet. school in 1986, mixed animal practitioner, large and small. I've viewed the videotape of the deer euthanization, and it is my opinion that the deer obviously was still alive when it was being dragged off with the plastic bag around its head. It should have been totally limp with no struggle. It probably could have been remedied by giving a second shot or a third shot in the skull, right when they realized that it was still kicking. Yes, the animals do move a little bit after being shot in the head, if they’re shot right, but not for that extended period of time that was shown in that pictorial. I was once a hunter, and I have had the occasion to euthanize deer with a shot in the head, so I actually have experience in knowing how long an animal probably would twitch and kick and resist, and that was not the case here.

My name is Meg J. Baho, DVM. I graduated from the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995 and practice animal medicine in the Columbus, Ohio area. I just viewed the horrifying video footage. My opinion is as follows: The first deer on the footage was shot, collapsed, and then appeared to have either conscious muscle contractions due to struggling and pain or perhaps violent post-mortem, agonal muscle tremors. The deer was then still for several moments. However, after the bag was placed on the doe's head, she was seen to have violent, flailing movements generalized through her body. This would not happen if she had been fatally shot the first time. These movements were not characteristic of normal post-mortem movement in any way, shape or form. She would not have post-mortem activity moments after being fatally shot induced by having a bag placed over her head. If the shooters were in that close of range, a fatal shot should have been administered. I cannot imagine why this didn't happen. If individuals involved in these cullings were interested in looking for diseases in her brain and central nervous system, she could have been much more humanely killed via a shot through her heart. There is no reason that I can imagine that she was not killed with another bullet. Humane and safe alternatives to deer population control exist and should be employed in both rural and urban areas. This sort of killing only reduces the gene pool and only invites deer from surrounding areas to come in and take the environmental niche that was left behind after this "depopulation."

Email vs Blogger

Email presents many organiztion challenges.

When email is copied over to Blogger or Sites it may contain formatting that isn't consistent with the other web content.  If you copy it with formatting than you must try to reformat it to be consistent, either with the WYSIWIG tools or by going into raw HTML and removing the inconsistent code.

Once copied you can remove formatting with the Tx WYSIWIG tool.

However there may be some formatting you want to keep which means if you remove it you'll have to look at the original line by line and reapply the selected formatting.

By composing directly in Blogger the author applies the formatting with Google while writing it making it more consistent and not requiring more post-formatting.

CSS Code

It becomes necessary to override Google's code with CSS to get the desired effect:
http://www.w3schools.com/css/

General use of inline CSS is via span or div tag using style statement

span style="css code;css code"
css code keyword parms are separated from values by a colon : and from each other by a semi colon ;


Font

Google uses old HTML font code for size (normal, large, x-large) which offers little granularity and at larger sizes overlaps the font for strange displays.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_font.asp
font-size:18px;
font-weight:bold

Line-height

At larger fonts, the letters tend to overlap, even with CSS coded fonts, the line height can be used to improve the separation.  This can be specified in px or as a multiplier number of at least 1.2.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_dim_line-height.asp

Margin

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_margin.asp
margin:25px 50px 75px 100px;

• top margin is 25px
• right margin is 50px
• bottom margin is 75px
• left margin is 100px

Right margin is useful override for left justified photo with wrap on.

The box model rule is useful to learn.
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_boxmodel.asp 

Indenting

Google Sites has an indent feature
Blogger only has the blockqoute feature
You can cause an indent by using the div tag with a margin CSS specifying px indent

xx

Bow Hunting

Well, at least one of them replied, albeit a polite but dismissive reply.  Eight pages of material and all he can say is that crossbows are much better nowadays than they were way back in the 90's.  No matter how many fancy gizmos you attach, it's still basically just a "spring and a string".  This convinces me that Mr. Stanek is going to push the hunting angle in his plan.  The motto will undoubtably be, "Look, what can it hurt?"

I've attached the two files I sent the City so you know which I'm talking about.  I was curious about Mr. Stanek's comments about the "primitive" weapons in the article, so I compared the projectile velocity of the compound bow in the document, around 300 feet per second, to the bolt velocity of one of Gander Mountain's most expensive crossbows.  The technologically superior crossbow of the 21st century had a bolt velocity of 340 FPS, only slightly faster.  Of course it did come in fancy cammo paint and a 3X scope in case you have trouble making out that deer at 20 to 30 yards.  Sorry, couldn't help the sarcasm.  The thing is, he completely missed, or ignored, the point of the report.

Heinz Knall

For Stanek

This editorial is from just last year. There are many many more like this. Would Stanek care to read them or see the photos of the dead deer in Independence or the deer with the arrow in her eye in Brecksville?  More of a spanking coming for SS Stanek.

The truth of the matter is cross bows and arrows are even MORE dangerous now and the fact remains that 50% are unretrieved.  More response for him on the way. Later.

By Deborah Dutcher and Donovan Mannato

Before dawn on November 6th, a hunter shot a deer with a bow and arrow from a tree-stand in our neighbor's yard, a few feet from our property line. The wounded animal ended up 30 feet from our back door, where it bled to death. Before we awoke, the carcass was dragged to our neighbor's property.

Rebound

Hunting Realities

There are many different species of animals that are hunted, but the most well-known and controversial is the white-tailed deer. 
 

There are many misconceptions and untruths surrounding this issue. The purpose of this website is to answer many of the important questions regarding deer and hunting in OH. 

For over 100 years, ODNR-Division of Wildlife have had complete authority over our wildlife. Along with the Wildlife council, they create the hunting seasons, and decide how many animals should be killed.While DOW continues to publicly push hunting as an effective tool in reducing deer populations, a detailed examination of their own records and reports confirms that not only does hunting not reduce deer populations, it, in fact, increases them. To understand this paradox, one must first realize their motives. ODNR, Wildlife Council  are controlled and run by hunters. The salaries of ODNR employees are paid for by the sale of hunting licenses. The Division of Wildlife must sell  many hunting licenses just to cover their salaries and benefits. It is for this reason that they must ensure that there is an abundant supply of animals for hunters to kill. 

This is the tragedy of it all, the very organization that should be protecting our wildlife makes its money from their slaughter.

Deer Biology and the Effect of Deer Hunting

One might question, if the Division of Wildlife were ardently pushing hunting just to sell licenses, wouldn't they run out o fdeer to hunt.This reasoning would make sense, if what we've been told (that hunting reduces deer populations) were true. The simple fact is hunting increases deer populations. This information is common knowledge among the scientific community and within the ranks of the Division of Wildlife. ODOW is in the business of keeping Ohio's deer population abundant, and hunting is the means through which that goal is carried out. 
 

Without hunting, deer populations stabilize themselves based upon the amount of food and water present, land available, and natural mortalities. When conditions are bad, deer respond with decreased pregnancies, and death among the weakest members. Within these conditions, there is no increase in the size of the population. The herd remains stable and healthy. This is how nature regulates wild animal populations. However, when hunting is introduced to a stable deer herd, everything is thrown out of balance. When a large number of deer is removed from a herd, competition for food, water, space and breeding opportunities is reduced. The reaction of the herd, to the sudden kill, is increased breeding. With plenty of food to go around, more does are likely to get pregnant, and twin and triplet births often occur. This added nutrition will also allow new born fawns to gain enough weight by the time they are 6 months old to become pregnant. Normally, they would wait 2 to 3 years. This new, high birth rate not only replaces those that were killed, but it adds significantly to the size of the total population. The natural processes of deer herds and the disturbance of these processes caused by hunting is well documented.

 

From the ODNR website:

Ohio deer hunters took a record 237,316 deer during the  2006-07 hunting season. The total number of deer taken was 13 percent above last years totaling 209,513

 

2008-'09 --- Record total of 252,017 deer killed

 

2009-'10  A total of 260,261 deer harvested. A 4 percent increase from last year.

Home Page

GET THE FACTS

Understand why bringing snipers or bow hunters into our neighborhoods to kill deer is UNSAFE    INEFFECTIVE AND UNNECESSARY.

After five years of a costly and ineffective culling program our elected officials are under pressure from a minority to continue their mistake.  Their plan squanders taxpayer's dollars and endangers people in our community with a poorly conceived and ineffective program.  Despite our history with this program, it is not well researched and it ignores long-term, science-driven and cost effective methods for resolving deer-human conflicts.  Worst of all, it puts everyone in our community at risk by using hunters with cross-bows and sharpshooters with high-powered rifles.

We have the means to prevent culling from going  forward again by putting the issue on the ballot in November.    Let's take this very important decision directly to the people to decide.  To this end and through the efforts of many people from a wide range of viewpoints, we have prepared an Initiative Petition in compliance with the Ohio Revised Code.  With XXXX signatures by June 30, Solon residents will have the opportunity to change the law here and prevent the mistake of culling from being a “management” option.  With your help we can heal the divisions created by this issue while keeping us safe and making Solon a community to be proud of.

PHOTO OF UNCLE SAM  

            TAKE ACTION!

 JOIN with fellow Solonites and realize the phenomenal power we possess by being involved in the Democratic process. Exercise your right to be counted.  You can help by signing this petition, circulating, or by placing a SIGN on your lawn. 

WHO WE ARE

Solon Deer is a group of concerned citizens from Solon neighborhoods who support safe, rational approaches to reducing deer-human conflicts. SolonDeer.com functions as a central point of information and public communication for those concerned with the Solon deer issue. We encourage you to become more informed and to get involved to generate the best outcome for all.  Please email us at solondeer@gmail.com.

Petition info is on Petition page, top of home page is WHY SHOULD I CARE, bottom is WHAT SHOULD I DO.  Who we are and former home page material is in About Us page.

ScribD embedded documents

It appears that the full screen option on the embedded docs is no longer available.

There is also some kind of archive feature that needs attention to keep your docs available.

There are 3 ways to embed documents:

HTML 5

Letter to Solon City Council2

Flash

Letter to Solon City Council2

Wordpress

[scribd id=52466281 key=key-26son81uwadj9xfkty49 mode=list]

HUNTING IS USED AS A TOOL TO INTENTIONALLY INCREASE DEER NUMBERS

Intro?

Deer Mgmt. Quotes Biologists DNR's1

Deer Contraception

It Works. It Works Well  See Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O89KlVzqxDs 

 

(John- can you put a picture of Dr.K with the click arrow in the middle of it?)  YouTube controls the photo that appears.

 

NEED SUMMARY

 

Power into Action

Ok. All good. The one thing we need on our home page though is the Uncle Sam photo saying We Need YOU and maybe please sign here for your support and would you like a sign and volunteer. We'll let them know that we will be putting the schedule and locations where we'll be petitioning on our site and they should check back often.

 

We need to get their attention right on the homepage to get their contact (Email)  That is vital, top priority. I don't want to lose people if they have to click around too much for that.

 

Can we fit this on the home page?  VERY important. Or maybe the Uncle Sam photo with the WE NEED YOU and then  Put your Power into Action and click which leads to the below and where to put in their personal information

 

PUT YOUR POWER INTO ACTION!

 

  Solon’s decision makers have abused their power long enough by squandering taxpayer's dollars, not fully researching, or outright ignoring long-term, science-proven, cost effective methods for solving the deer conflict and by putting it’s citizenry at risk by suggesting that hunters be allowed to use cross-bows in Solon and allowing sharpshooters with high-powered, lethal weapons to stalk our neighborhoods at all hours of the day and night.

 

  The five year deer management plan was a failure. The advocates for 21st century solutions have been right all along, but we can't win by just being right.  Just because we've never done this before doesn't mean we can't.  Exercise your right to be counted, become politically active and with your help we can win!

 

 Roll up your sleeves and try something different. Join with  fellow Solonites and supporters of a long-term, rational, cost effective solution and realize the phenomenal power we possess by being involved in the Democratic process. You can help by getting out and collecting signatures for the ballot intiative and by placing a sign on your lawn. Anyone can do this with a little guidance and direction. We will have short training sessions to prepare you for collecting signatures.. Help us unify the formidable force that is within each of us.

 

 Let's take this very important decision directly to the people so they can decide.  With your help we can restore civility to the city of Solon by bringing us into the 21st century in solving a very solvable problem while keeping us safe and making Solon a community to be proud of

Home Page

 I liked the following verbiage starting with the blue.  Correction.  I told her it was TOO WORDY!  We had a conversation about simple, simple, simple. 

This needs to be pared down!

We need to get that home page ready first and foremost. We need to have the word BALLOT INITIATIVE on our home page so people know what we're doing.  

First we need to explain the issue, then Ballot Initiative

I'm pasting what I wrote the other day and will pluck out some key points we should probably use IN BLUE or pared down but Mel and I both like EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO BE COUNTED. WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN WIN.

Also, John take a look at the SIGN page from Village deer (sent you the link) Easy and it stands alone so people may be inclined to contact us for a sign. Your thoughts?  DONE

Solon’s decision makers have abused their power long enough by squandering taxpayer's dollars, not fully researching, or outright ignoring long-term, science-proven, cost effective methods for solving the deer conflict and by putting it’s citizenry at risk by suggesting that hunters be allowed to use cross-bows in Solon and allowing sharpshooters with high-powered, lethal weapons to stalk our neighborhoods at all hours of the day and night.

 

 The five year deer management plan was a failure. The advocates for 21st century solutions have been right all along, but we can't win by just being right.  Just because we've never done this before doesn't mean we can't.  Exercise your right to be counted, become politically active and with your help we can win!

 

 Roll up your sleeves and try something different. Join with  fellow Solonites and supporters of a long-term, rational, cost effective solution and realize the phenomenal power we possess by being involved in the Democratic process. You can help by getting out and collecting signatures for the ballot intiative and by placing a sign on your lawn. Anyone can do this with a little guidance and direction. We will have short training sessions to prepare you for collecting signatures.. Help us unify the formidable force that is within each of us.

 

 Let's take this very important decision directly to the people so they can decide.  With your help we can restore civility to the city of Solon by bringing us into the 21st century in solving a very solvable problem while keeping us safe and making Solon a community to be proud of.

 

This can be on the home page or after they click "JOIN"  Wherever you can fit it. 
Will review...

Don't forget to take that TEST word off of the DeerDeter page. 

Can't find it

Let's start getting stuff moved to the public site. I'll start editing tonight but we don't need to get too hung up on it. As long as there aren't spelling or grammatical mistakes. 

Some of this is VERY long and hard for the typical apathetic voter to follow. 

 

Ok guys, start asking people if they can get out there Th. nite. Remember, we need volunteers. We only have until the end of June! 2200 signatures.

We'll have to give them a quick briefing before they begin. 

Petition page added, can post volunteer training time and signing events. OVERDUE!

Will add > to Sign Petition link next to Uncle Sam as soon we have those times. PAGE ADDED, WITHOUT TIMES.

Community Discord

Idea that just came to me. We need a 'Community Discord' link.
We can take that one powerful statement that Godzich said in a recent Patch article I think it was....In all his years on the force the worst thing he ever dealt with was the deer issue.

Then we list all the law suits, (I have all the articles) neighbors that no longer speak, school buses letting kids off in very close proximity to the snipers. The guy walking his dog and toddler who had no idea there was a sniper in the tree as his son pointed and said LOOK DADDY, A DEER!!!! Thankfully one of us ran up to the dad and told him to get his son out of there.

What about Solon being the butt of jokes, the black eye that came from 5 yrs of killing in our backyards. The media blitz.

Ottawa Hills Victory

thought you guys would enjoy seeing this. Pretty motivating, eh! You'll see Justice Resnick here too. I'm going to visit her soon. We should give her some kind of gift. Without her our ballot petition could never have happened.


http://www.foxtoledo.com/dpp/news/deer-hunt-referendum-on-ballot-in-ottawa-hills?ref=scroller&categoryId=20000&status=true

Issue 8 in Ottawa Hills will fail and the deer will not be slaughtered. Take a look! That's Rob (spearheaded the ref) speaking.

Wounded

Studies conducted by Fish and Game agencies across the country show that 50% of deer shot with an arrow run off to die long, drawn out agonizing deaths. Please read admissions from hunters themselves, regarding unretrieved deer:

http://www.rubsnscrapes.com/Articles/deer_shot_placement_anatomy.php

Bow Hunting

Excellant report
http://www.safebackyards.com/Report%20on%20Bowhunting.pdf

Need a summary, then will embed in post, and put an attribution to the site, assume no copyright issues.
Put Link on Links page.

The Hudson page seems to be copying from this...
https://sites.google.com/site/hudsonohiodeer/the-truth-about-bowhunting

What Wildlife Agencies Don't Want You to Know

What neighborhood residents need to understand is WHO and WHAT is behind suburban deer conflicts. Hunting is on the decline. The National Fish and Game agency came up with a master plan to counter that. Terry Moore, former NYS Wildlife Director told hunters: "We shall attempt to raise the number of deer until we experience high accidents of deer car collisions, depradation of agricultural crops becomes intolerable and the effects of deer habitat result in deterioration to increase the success rate of big game hunters. [close quotes here?]

One reason for the decline is that hunters don't have time to spend the weekend, hours away, at the hunting cabin. State Divisions of Wildlife, which are state-run hunting clubs, set out to create more hunting opportunities in order to sell more hunting licenses which pays their salaries.

From the ODNR website: [quote?] Moneys from Ohio sportsmen and women provide 95 of every 100 dollars. The Pittman-Robertson act attaches an excise tax to all guns and sporting equipment. [unquote?] The collective tax is divided among the states and the biggest portion goes to the state that sells the most hunting licences.

Retaining hunters and hunter recruitment is the ultimate goal.

Wildlife Agencies created "Urban Zones" which serve as a convenience or what's known as the 'fast food of hunting.' Urban zones have large trophy bucks since hunting has never occurred there before. Urban deer are semi-tame, making them easy targets. The other thing hunters complain about is ACCESS.

Urban hunting zones are about client retention. Scores of industry “hunter satisfaction” surveys register hunter demand for ACCESS to more of our public and private lands to hunt on.

Quoted in an article in the Associated Press, Rob Sexton, a vice president of the United States Sportsmen Alliance (USSA) said “one upside of the shrinking numbers is that hunting groups are more motivated to seek remedies, such as ACCESS to more land and less burdensome regulations.”

Scott Peters, (ODNR-Division of Wildlife) goes from city to city presenting distorted facts, propaganda and insisting that killing is the ONLY means of managing human-caused white-tailed deer over-populations as the Gospel truth. [improve phrase] Mr. Peters always talks about Solon. He says Solon has spent [hundreds of?] thousands of dollars on sharpshooters and that's a quick fix but needs to be followed by long-term hunting. [D's contradiction]

To seal the deal:

Wildlife mismanagement depends upon backroom deals between hunters and the Divisions of Wildlife, aided by the political maneuvering of local politicians,who pander to these same special interests or those that yell the loudest about their tulips. The best interests of the residents, the environment and the wildlife is ignored.

It's time for Solon elected officials to own up to their mistake and to seriously pursue humane and effective solutions to the humane-deer conflict.

---

I can't figure out how to edit the above. VERY frustrated. I am adding some important info to the above blog. When its edited we can decide where to add it. Here it is:

The goal for the Ohio Division of Wildlife has always been to add Solon to their 'urban zone' hunting list.

From the Herald Sun 2-10-05
Damon Greer (ODNR) acknowledged that sharpshooting is expensive and if White Buffalo kills 600 deer in Solon this year, as planned, the population would rebound in two years unless the city keeps paying White Buffalo to shoot them. For that reason, Greer said, "Solon should allow hunting, as in surrounding communities."

From the Solon Herald Sun 4-21-06
STATE URGES HUNTING TO THIN DEER HERD
David Klunzinger, former director of Public Works and overseer of the deer management plan said, "Ohio has recommended hunting in Solon to thin the deer herd."

From the ODNR Overview report 1-27-07 Appendix A

On a state wide scale deer populations are controlled using 'harvest management' or hunting. By regulating the number of deer a hunter can take and where the deer may be harvested from, the Division of Wildlife can MANIPULATE THE STATES DEER POPULATION UP OR DOWN to meet the harvest manangement goal. Without harvest management we would have no effective way to CONTROL THE GROWTH of an existing or future deer populations.

Conclusion:
Where feasible Solon should consider the use of regulated or controlled hunting in the maintenance phase of the deer management goal for the city. Controlled hunting is a safe and cost effective method that can be utilized on an annual basis to keep the deer population near the desired level.

From the Independence Gazette:
Jason Hadsell (ODNR) said, "Independence has a very large abundant population of deer that is continually growing DUE TO A LACK OF HUNTING PRESSURE. To make a significant dent in Cuyahoga's problem adjacent cities and entities need to implement cooperative PLANS FOR HUNTING."

The ODOW intentionally exploits the rebound effect in order to keep a high inventory of deer for economical reasons. The reason for too many deer is human-caused. The deer are the victims, not the perpetrators.

It is our hope that once the Solon residents understand the rebound effect and who and why is responsible for the urban deer conflicts they will demand that the decision makers discontinue using failed solutions from the dark ages and implement logical, humane, science-proven, long-term, cost-effective solutions

Hunting Humor

While hunting is a serious issue, sometimes the absurdity of it all is humorous...

Shark video of hunter being interrupted by ultralight while taunted by animal rights activists.  Nothing disturbing...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frv4iKaisFc

Lewis  Black's bit on Cheny's Hunting accident.  Language not suitable for children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ene75RM3w

And this photo, no offence meant to women...

Click to photo to enlarge

Add your own as comments here...

Are there any suitable for public site?

Editorial cartoons from our local paper would probably work well with the news story behind them to show the idiotic paradox of govt activity.

Disturbing Video

How to handle disturbing videos?

Warn readers?

eg SHARK is listed as "mature material" which adds extra steps for age verification. This makes it harder for readers to view, probably too hard.  http://www.youtube.com/user/SHARKonlineorg

A warning in the caption...

Web Services

This is an introduction to web services, for a more technical discussion see this post.

There are three distinct public sites:

• Main Site - SolonDeer.com - The first place for people to see what's going on
• Articles (Blog) - More detailed information, people will be directed here from the Main Site
• News (formally Comments) - A separate blog to publish News, Letters to the Editor, Editorials, and public comments sent to SolonDeer@gmail.com.

Public Document storage is done on ScribD which can be embedded onto blog posts.

There are private facilities for those active in supporting our effort.  This blog is the main vehicle for that effort.  Google Docs will also be used for collaboration, stay tuned for more instructions.

Call for Work Help

Our Solon Deer Work Blog now has 100 posts, 71 are "Active" and need input and discussion. http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/

Currently this work area is available for everyone to view and comment on, it is suppressed from Google Search but when the city realizes our effort I will need to secure it so they can't see what we're up to.  While that may sound paranoid, I know from past experience that the city DOES IN FACT monitor citizens posting on the web.  I have seen them discover my bainbridge road blog with a large spike as they caught up on what I posted, I have been critical of the city online and been personally contacted within 12 hours of a post.  We can expect them to monitoIr our Solon Deer web presence very soon.

I'd like to encourage everyone who hasn't already registered for a Google ID to do so.  This will allow me to invite you to private work forums so you can read and contribute to secured areas.  See http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-registration.html  to see the process.  You can use your existing email to register to Google, you don't need to define a new ID. 

Take a look at the Welcome Post to see http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/welcome.html

Many of you are already registered to the private blog, some of you are not.  For those who are not, send me an email when you have an ID and I'll send you an invitation to the private blog.  When you sign in to the blog you will have the option of defining a new post, editing a post you authored, or commenting on any post.  See this post for details http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/using-blogger.html .

The 71 active posts were derived from the nearly 500 emails I have on this topic.  The work blog is an organization tool that allows you to filter posts by VerDraft status, by subject, etc.  We have 10 posts that have moved to VerArchive status that have been acted on and moved to the public sites.  Our goal would be to make a substantial dent in the 71 active posts to move them through draft status to VerFinal and to the public sites.  The challenge is that information, especially written from an animal activists point of view doesn't translate to a Web Site or Web Blog format nor to the target audience of uninformed voter.  See this post for a discussion - http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/audience.html .

Those who are more technical may be interested in how the web services are set up, see http://solondeerprivwork.blogspot.com/search/label/Tech

Everything starts with registering to Google and the Welcome post, we look forward to moving forward with our web content to support our actions..

As always, feel free to contact me about any question or suggestions.

April Safety Mtg

Speaker: Deer Park
He's expecting our support, but gives cause for being skeptical.

Deer Deter has asked but got no response

Kraus said experts must come to be heard.  This is a circular argument as they don't want to come where they obviously aren't wanted.

Could they present via the internet - ala Skype or GoToMeeting?

Call for Support

PUT YOUR POWER INTO ACTION!

1) Solon’s decision makers have abused their power long enough by squandering taxpayer's dollars, not fully researching, or outright ignoring long-term, science-proven, cost effective methods for solving the deer conflict and by putting it’s citizenry at risk by suggesting that hunters be allowed to use cross-bows in Solon and allowing sharpshooters with high-powered, lethal weapons to stalk our neighborhoods at all hours of the day and night.

2) The five year deer management plan was a failure. The advocates for 21st century solutions have been right all along, but we can't win by just being right. Just because we've never done this before doesn't mean we can't. Exercise your right to be counted, become politically active and with your help we can win!

3) Roll up your sleeves and try something different. Join with fellow Solonites and supporters of a long-term, rational, cost effective solution and realize the phenomenal power we possess by being involved in the Democratic process. You can help by getting out and collecting signatures for the ballot intiative and by placing a sign on your lawn. Anyone can do this with a little guidance and direction. We will have short training sessions to prepare you for collecting signatures.. Help us unify the formidable force that is within each of us.

4) Let's take this very important decision directly to the people so they can decide. With your help we can restore civility to the city of Solon by bringing us into the 21st century in solving a very solvable problem while keeping us safe and making Solon a community to be proud of.

---

Number one: We really must make email a * required field. That is extremely important. We will need a way to contact these people in the next few months. Priority!

We have decided to put a public domain picture of 'Uncle Sam' on our Homepage with the caption WE NEED YOU TO HELP. Click here or something..... and then they can fill out their personal information/contacts.