The Invisible Hand

Let them Eat Deer

In suburban Connecticut a battle between hunters and vegans has claimed an unlikely victim . . . the homeless. The Homeless and the Meatless

In order to control the extreme overpopulation of deer in the area, the Audubon Society has sponsored a controlled hunt and has donated the venison to local homeless shelters. Good idea, right?

Not good enough for the strident pro-deer militants who try to stop the hunting of deer at all costs . . . even if the deer are starving to death and eating their young, even if the deer have totally wrecked the ecosystem by eating every living thing in sight, even if the deer are dispatched humanely and given a useful purpose for their grim lives.

Priscilla Feral is the president of Friends of Animals in Darien, Connecticut and a well know nutjob. She is appropriately named because she has gone completely native and was recently quoted in a local paper saying hunting deer is the equivalent of killing children in Iraq -- a terrible slur against Iraqis. It goes without saying the Feral is lacto-ovo vegan.

What's Feral's response to feeding the hungry with fresh lean meat?

Her group has pledged to replace, pound-for-pound, the 1,600 pounds of venison that the local food bank would reap from the deer hunt with what it calls "cruelty free" vegan fare. That is, if the Audubon calls off its hunt. Even stricter than vegetarians, vegans avoid all animal products including eggs, milk and honey.

According to Ms. Feral, proposed menus could include tempeh London broil, lentil orzo casserole, carrot pate, and wheat-free apple pie

Great! It's bad enough to find yourself hungry and homeless in the wealthiest county in the United States, but to top it off you get all the carrot pate you can eat (which is about one spitfull by my reckoning).

In the meantime the deer keep multiplying, keeping eating the next generation of trees and saplings, keep devouring the food supply for birds and other animals, keep colliding with cars and leaving their splattered carcasses all over the roadways.

These pseudo-environmentalists simply can't conceive that some animals are harder on the environment than people are.

My solution? Introduce a natural predator for the deer . . . like leopards!