Voices Carry

Thank you to all the Oak Bay residents, and residents from surrounding communities, who came out during an extremely trying time while the council commenced with their deer cull in February/March. You raised your voices every way you could think of; appealing for scientific research, writing and presenting to councils and board members, even walking the streets of Oak Bay day and night looking for signs of those who were creeping around in secrecy.

Mayor Jensen announced that seven bucks and four does lost their lives over a sixteen day period. When he went to the media to declare the cull a success, he could not contain his obvious glee that the public was not able to observe this carefully planned kill.

We have learned that the pilot in Oak Bay was initiated to conduct a cull in a densely urbanized area without detection. Staff time (“not cheap” according to Mayor Jensen) was spent carefully selecting properties, not based on complaints, but on the ability to keep the “euthanasia” of problem wildlife a carefully guarded secret.

We will not accept any more of these killings in our communities. DeerSafe is here to support the many residents of the Capital Regional District who insist on scientific evidence of an urban deer overpopulation and non-lethal human/deer mitigation. We cannot be shouted down just because the loudest voice has the ability to snuff out innocent lives.

We are not going away. Voices carry.