Taking A Moral Stand

The Township Council Meeting of four and a half hours on Tuesday night was probably the most emotional I have ever witnessed.

Though County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and his team of experts, in an organized and comprehensible fashion, gave their reasons for wanting to continue the deer kill in South Mountain Reservation, it was the animal activists who could not contain their distress. Some might fault the activists for their show of anger and frustration, but it is understandable.

It is difficult to sit silent or listen passively on an issue such as this kill. Indeed, the activists were often in tears as they described the horrors of the kill of last year in the Reservation.

Their tears may not have moved the township council, but neither did the case made by the county executive and his expert team have its desired impact. Although Councilwoman Patty Spango and Councilman Robert Parisi voted to continue the deer kill, Councilwoman Susan McCartney, Councilman Sal Anderton and Council President Renard Barnes voted against the kill.

Those voting for essentially repeated the case made by the CE, that the deer are responsible for defoliating the reservation and must be stopped. The method, men armed with guns and climbing trees to shoot deer feeding at staged feeding spots below, was not an issue for Spango or Parisi. Nor was there much interest or comment on the fact that these deer were not killed on first shot and wandered wounded into streets and yards nearby.

Those voting against were not convinced of the validity of the argument of de-foresting or of the County's diligence in exploring alternatives to the kill. Both Anderton and McCartney spoke with conviction but it was Barnes who expressed his decision most eloquently. His refusal to endorse this kill was based on his observation that the County had offered no real plan for containing deer in the future or for re-planting the Reservation.

It would have been very easy for these three council members to have just voted approval, especially so as the County Executive began his presentation saying that their vote was of no consequence---that he had the right to, and would, pursue the kill regardless of their vote.

But the three members stood firm, and in this listener's eyes, stood tall in their decision. If the kill is to continue, it will not be with their approval.

It was a moral stand, if nothing else, and those committed to the humane treatment of animals as well as those committed to exploring alternative non-violent solutions, are deeply appreciative.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma), perhaps the most noted pillar of moral stands against violence, once said: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated".

The Township of West Orange, in their denial of authorizing the deer kill, took an important step in helping to polish its image and its legacy with the courage and conviction of these three council members.

But this is not the end. Other towns need to join in this effort to stop the kill.

The Maplewood Town Council will be meeting to vote on October 21st - 7 pm - Maplewood Town Hall, 574 Valley Road,Maplewood NJ 07040. We need to be there to encourage them to take the same moral stand.

Deer Hunt Bogus on All Counts

You may find this above image disturbing, as do I. But it's not nearly as disturbing as the story that goes with it.

For some totally unfathomable reason, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, ordinarily a good guy doing good things, is insistent that the deer hunt in South Mountain Reservation continue.

This, despite the fact that independent studies have shown that there are less than 50 deer living in the Reservation, that reflectors at high accident locations have proven successful in preventing car collisions with deer, and that an immunocontraceptive has been proven to be 88% effective in limiting deer reproduction.

All of these proven methods of deer count, deer containment and deer contraception are just being ignored by Mr. DiVincenzo and he is claiming that Lyme Disease, car accidents and damage to the foliage in the Reservation are justification for this barbaric killing spree.

Even if we were to accept the Executive's rationale (and no one who has seen the studies or knows the issues does accept them, including the American Lyme Disease Foundation), let's look at the circumstances.

The deer killed in the last hunt were not humanely killed. Don't kid yourself that these "marksmen" put a bullet through the head of the deer and that was that. These deer included bucks, does,and yearlings (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings should be here to chronicle this!). Some of the "kill" included fawns that were less than 35 pounds (that's the weight of a full sized beagle as point of comparison). They were shot and then wandered out onto the road to be run down by cars, collapse in a pool of their own blood while still alive, and in one particularly horrific case, eaten alive by an unleashed pit bull.

Not enough yet to move you?

Then consider the density of the population surrounding the Reservation. Any stray bullet could easily penetrate a home, a car window, or some one's head.

And if none of this moves you, ponder the message we send to children living in this area in allowing this to happen. That lovely, essentially benign creatures are allowed to be slaughtered, that guns and bullets are accepted as solutions rather than regarded as problems, and that one person---- for whatever reason---- can potentially sway an intelligent body of people to let him have his way in continuing this massacre.

PLEASE, please attend the West Orange Township meeting on October 7 to protest and halt this "deer hunt". Call for the reinstatement of Resolution 648-04 which opposed the deer hunt. Make your minds known and your voices heard. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. If you can not attend the meeting, please send an email to the City Council members who will be listening to the Essex County Executive that night make his case for the hunt.

There is no case, and you need to let the council members know that you are in direct and resolute opposition to this hunt.