Monday, November 26, 2007

4364

Deer season opens today

November 26 is the first day of deer hunting season in Ohio, when approximately 400,000 hunters will kill about 120,000 deer. It will contribute $266 million to the state's economy. Toledo Blade story. Deer contribute to their own demise too--the does live twice as long as the bucks, who get in fights and kill each other (it's a guy thing). More deer are killed in accidents with fences than are taken legally by hunters, and feral dogs kill many thousands. Deer vehicle collision (DVC) will also take a lot of lives, some of them human. Three years ago I wrote about seeing 13 dead deer on the interstate medium between the west side of Columbus and the first exit at Richmond, Indiana. The 13th we saw killed by the semi truck in front of us. It was just awful. I've seen the figure half a million a year, but haven't seen the source of the statistic. Doug at Coffee Swirls writes about hitting a deer in Iowa, which has one of the highest DVC rates, with a repair estimate of $4800.

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