How One Email Will Create An Army For a Cause

The Maplewood Township Council voted last night to continue the deer slaughter in the South Mountain Reservation. The Council voted 4 in favor, 1 opposed.

The story might have ended there, but for a very ill conceived and ill created communication on the part of the Dennis Percher, Chairman of the Board of the South Mountain Conservancy.

His first mistake was sending an email on a sensitive subject, and sending it to a large group of people.

His second mistake was assuming that people supporting the Conservancy and appreciating the Reservation would necessarily be in favor of the slaughter.

His third mistake was using highly volatile language, calling those who oppose the slaughter "zealots" and belittling their efforts to protect the deer.

Additionally, his accusation that the West Orange Township Council was manipulated in some way to reject the slaughter is completely off target. Those Council members did not buy the slate of "evidence" presented by the County and the Conservancy. They took a more conservative and higher path: they are to be highly praised, not subtly ridiculed.

His fourth mistake was letting that derisive email, created to rally his troops, get into the hands of his adversaries.

Those campaigning to halt the kill were not happy to see Percher's strategies and "successes" in lobbying the Maplewood council spelled out so clearly. This was particularly troubling when these same council members literally shut the door in the face of others hoping to present the opposite side of this issue.

I think I may represent many people opposed to this kill.

We all work and have families and friends and neighbors and enjoy the outdoors. Most of us have pets whom we love and take care of, in sickness and in health. Not one of us think that violence is a solution of any kind.

And none of us want to see perfectly healthy animals killed when we believe that there is a better way to thin the deer population, if indeed, that is necessary. We are repulsed by the idea of the deer being wounded and left to die in some one's back yard. There probably isn't a person among us who would, however, physically harm those asking for the kill, authorizing the kill or implementing the kill.

Zealots? Hardly.

I think other than being outspoken on this issue, and for good reason, we are pretty ordinary. Not zealots. Not fanatics. Not militants.

What makes us a little different perhaps, is that we hate injustice.

Killing the deer in the fashion created last year is injustice.

Dismissing our own evidence regarding studies that refute those of the County and the Conservancy is injustice.

And besmirching our good intentions with bad names is injustice.

So, should Mr. Percher or Mr. DiVincenzo ever read this blog post, please keep in mind that your arrogance and dismissive attitude are creating a monster.

Where there there were 20 of us, next time there will be 200. Where there were 200, there will be 2000. And so on. You have re-dedicated us to our cause. You have refreshed a deep distrust for you, and all you stand for.

And you have galvanized a few dissenting thinkers into an army of dissenting voters.

Holding Life in Your Hand

This is an open plea to the Township of Maplewood.

And, yes, I'll resort to begging to save a life.

In this case it is not just one life. It is dozens, and it could be hundreds. There is no max or cap on the number of deer that will be allowed to be slaughtered if the Essex County "Deer Management" Plan goes unchallenged and unchecked.

There is a controversy raging about this so-called "deer hunt". You need to listen to all sides and not take for granted that the information being presented by the County is the only story.

It is just one side, and it is greatly flawed.

Before you condone and allow this slaughter to take place again, please note the following:

1. Consider that there were 213 deer killed in last year's hunt. Regardless of who is doing the counting, that is a large number of deer and that is without even getting into the finer points of the inhumane methods employed in the kill.

2. With that number of deer slaughtered, there is every reason to believe that Gonacon, the emerging and most efficient contraceptive to limit deer population, will work in the Reservation.

3. Deer are not the only reason for the defoliation of the Reservation. There is a block of "evidence" to attest to that fact. Why are deer being singled out as the only cause when there is documentation that mountain and dirt bikes are causing enormous damage?

4. Why, when the documentation exists, are mountain bikes not just allowed but encouraged by the South Mountain Conservancy and the deer are targeted for slaughter?

5. Deer are not the only carrier of the tick causing Lyme Disease. Analyse the logic here. The deer don't "grow" the tick. The ticks exist in the soil and use the deer as hosts. Birds and other mammals can be convenient hosts as well, aside from the fact that the ticks are perfectly capable of transporting themselves without hosts.

6. There is no guarantee that even with the slaughter of the deer that the foliage in the Reservation will regenerate. No one knows if it will, yet the slaughter is being touted as the answer.

7. Weigh the impact of your action. Do you want to tell your community and the children living in Maplewood that guns, bullets and violent actions are the solutions to problems? Just think about that message as that is the one that will be heard if you again approve this slaughter.

The West Orange Township Council stated that more study and exploration needed to be done before it would consider endorsing another hunt.

The Maplewood Township Council desperately needs to follow the same path.