A response to killing...

What I am about to write may be a little controversial, so if you find yourself easily offended, don't read further :)

After reading the poem in response to the police shooting the deer by Patricia Killelea, I really started to think.  I even went online and watched the video; several times, actually, because of the bad quality.  It may have been because of my upbringing, or the sheltered lives many people have grown up in, but the killing of this deer did not get me as fired up as some of the residents of Oakland.  By no means was this a good thing, or even funny, but cause for great outburst and 12k races in honor of the deer?  Well, that depends on what you believe in.  First of all, maybe I was mistaken, but the deer in the video was by no means a "baby", it was a full grown doe.  Not that it makes the situation any better, but many people are going to place a lot more pity on an animal if it was a baby.  In my personal opinion, that deer was a dead deer bullets or not.  Let me explain before you call me a @#%!@%. I grew up in a town in the middle of the forest, dead deer on the side of the road was so common, no one really thought twice about it.  In fact, I have killed deer myself (not on purpose, poor thing ran out in front of my car).  Its a sad clash between man and nature, but the scope of overpopulation of deer is tremendous.  To the point that there are quotas on how many deer HAVE to be killed each year in order to maintain a ecological balance.  If they are not, there are HUGE repercussions, including famine, disease, and human casualties including vehicle crashes.  The simple fact is there are just not enough predators.  So when I see a dead deer, i used to feel very sad, but i know the ecology of these animals and the importance of population control; if it is not kept down, deer populations will actually plummet, killing more than would have been killed via population control.  Consult a standard population graph and you will see what i am talking about, there is always a carrying capacity (except for humans, we have yet to reach it, or already have and are awaiting the crash....).  You may think, "well, what did they do before man?  control their own populations?"  The answer is yes.  There were predators.  But humans have replaced the niche of the predator, causing over populations of deer.  A solution?  everyone leaves... but that simply wont happen.  You can tell a person that its wrong to kill wildlife, and most people, including myself will agree.  But then say to that person"your presence occupies a niche otherwise filled by wildlife and thus you are directly harming the ecosystem."  That person is not going to go out and remove themselves are they? That's Reality vs Ideology

That is really got me thinking though; the huge difference of opinion.  Here I am, I have seen more animals die than most people (living on a farm often does that to you), and in contrast, there are people who may have only seen road kill every now and then.  The severity of death is far more intense, more romantic even.  Nothing makes a better story than Bambi (which i cried in and i am not ashamed to admit).  But there is a big difference between reality, and ideology.  Ideally, the deer should have been relocated.  In reality, it would have been killed by a car.  Call me insensitive, but a deer that wanders into urban areas is marked for death, its just a fact of life, whether you find it good or bad.  Relocating it often leads to it getting killed in another more hideous way, or even causing a death of a person.  Its an issue of overpopulation of a species clashing with civilization.

On the other hand, the situation may have not really been about the deer being killed, it was more about the ethical issues between the clash of society and nature.  We all like to take a romantic approach to nature, but in reality we all do a pretty good job at killing it.  The deer made a good example of the lack of respect that some people have towards nature, but how different is it from hunting?  From a car hitting it?  From a predator killing it?  Oh, well predators eat it....   Not always.  Many lions leave most of their kill behind, only eating the organs.  So whats my point?  I don't really have one.  I'm just playing devils advocate and debating the other side of the story.  A rather immoral side.... but a real one.  How do we fix the issue?  Well.... unfortunately death is apart of every living creature... something us humans like to detach from to not worry about how we too will all die one day.