Another slam on hunting from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Tuesday the IndyStar.com website published an article concerning the increase in car deer accidents in the state of Indiana. The first line of the article states that despite the state sanctioned hunts for deer, motorists that hit deer with their vehicles is on the rise. So are they saying that Indiana hunters are not doing their job? Or are they saying that hunting doesn’t effect the number of deer car accidents?
     They go on to say that deer car accidents have risen 25% in Indiana and only 15% in the rest of the U.S. since 2003, that’s according to the State Farm Insurance Company. Maybe the rest of the U.S. has better hunters? Or maybe hunting in the other states does make a difference?
     Did this article take into account if there were more vehicles on the road since 2003? Did this article take into account if the accidents occurred in areas where traffic has increased? When we build homes and subdivisions in rural places and move more people and vehicles into those areas, they will come into more contact with wildlife, literally!   
     If the reporter of this story would have done a little homework before he or she wrote this, they would have found that Melissa Miles a research analyst from State Farm Insurance stated in 2006 that “All the construction, whether for highways or households, is pushing the deer out of their wooded areas.” Other industry officials say that people are now moving out of the cities into rural areas where deer roam. More people means more drivers, which in turn will cause more accidents in places where deer live! 
     Another ridiculous statement was by Laura Simon of the HSUS who was quoted in the story as saying, “that deer hunting has little effect at reducing deer-vehicle accidents.” I guess reducing the deer herd by a couple hundred thousand deer each year doesn’t keep accident numbers down. What does she think will happen if those couple hundred thousand deer were left to roam around, that wouldn’t contribute to more accidents?
     She also stated that hunting does thin the herd temporarily but it leaves more vegetation for the remaining deer to eat. “The more they eat the more offspring they have.” WOW, eating vegetation now leads to pregnancy! That is what caused me to have four children. Here all along I thought it was the fact that we had sex! I guess I need to go back to school and take science class all over again and quit eating so much!
     Lastly she stated, “It would be nice to shoot out the problem, but the solution is not that easy, we don’t think its effective, and of course we don’t think it’s humane. ” But never fear she does have a solution! She stated that what we need is “deer sterilization programs and the use of roadside reflectors and motion detectors.” WHAT! Reflectors for what? For us to look at or deer to look at? Deer don’t move for headlights now, what good would reflectors do? We already have them on the roads now, does that keep the deer from running across the road? And motion detectors, what is the purpose of them? Are they to alert the deer of a possible car coming towards them? Or are they to alert us as to the presence of deer on the side of the road? How many of these detectors would it take to line the roadway to provide safety to drivers? Can you imagine the cost of such a project? What are these people thinking?
     So their solution is to stop hunting, sterilize the deer, and place reflectors and motion detectors along the road ways. I have an idea, why don’t we sterilize the members of the HSUS? That would stop all this foolishness, and get the media to realize that when you have an increase in drivers in a rural area you will have more contact with wildlife. One last suggestion to people who own large tracts of land, let hunters have access to hunt these lands in order to keep herd numbers down while allowing them to enjoy hunting. Just my two cents!

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