Friends of Blue Hills Deer to state leaders: Stop the hunt

The Friends of the Blue Hills Deer — a grassroots organization made up of community organizers devoted to stopping hunts in and around the Blue Hills — will deliver 1,046 signatures to state leaders demanding the Department of Conservation and Recreation cancel its hunt planned for November 29 and 30 and December 6 and 7.

The 2016 hunt will cover nearly 750 more acres of the reservation than last year’s hunt, and a lottery will be used to select more than twice as many hunters as in 2015. Also new this year, a select number of archers will be allowed to hunt using bows and arrows, which the Friends described in a statement as a “cruel practice” that leaves up to half of all deer that are struck injured but not killed.

“Residents who live around the Blue Hills will be subjected to a magnified threat level should the DCR conduct the hunt and make good on its plan to increase the number of licenses issued,” said Cindy Haigh, a founding member of Friends of the Blue Hills Deer. “This is unacceptable to the thousands of people who expect to be able to walk and hike in this park without the fear of being accidentally shot.”

Haigh emphasized that degradation of the park’s vegetation — the DCR’s oft-cited justification for the hunt — is driven by multiple factors, including pollution and development as well as climate change. “To suggest hunting is the answer to this problem is to look very narrowly at a complex issue that demands comprehensive and scalable solutions,” she said.

The Friends of the Blue Hills Deer collected the more than 1,000 signatures, many at the foot of the Blue Hills, in just two weeks from residents spanning several towns, including Canton and Milton.

Haigh said the goal of the petition drive is to pressure the DCR to halt plans for the hunt and instead to conduct an unbiased population survey and evaluate and deploy alternatives to deer culls, which she said only serve to exacerbate the deer population.

“Our hope is that the DCR will prioritize unbiased science, the safety of the thousands of citizens who use this park, and give fair consideration to better population management alternatives that will not put innocent lives at risk,” she said.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Nov 25 2016. Filed under Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.