I would like to make a few comments in regard to the letter from Val Boswell (Deer meeting showed progress, News June 26).
The deer didn’t come here because of loss of habitat. I lived in Metchosin for 25 years and I see far more deer here than there, where their habitat was ideal. The urban pressure on them is far greater in Oak Bay than it ever was in Metchosin. If development is the real problem, they would go deeper into the bush, not into more densely populated areas. They come here because the living is easier.
Contraception, while an interesting idea raises more questions. How do we ensure that we sterilize them all? We would soon have the same population of sterile deer, subject to road death and all the other hazards of their urban environment. Those that didn’t get killed on the road would continue on until old age and starvation would cause them to die in some resident’s garden or a hidden area of a park were it would be the smell that alerts us. Hardly a nice find in the morning or on your walk in the park.
Dogs are not the answer. Deer only fear a loose dog and in the urban area we take our dogs in at night. There is no deterrent there. If dogs chase deer, and even family pets will, the deer lose in a horrible way.
The municipality needs a solution that will work, not one that might work.
Ed Walker
Oak Bay