Animals

Targeting: Trustee Kate Supron (Cayuga Heights Trustee), Trustee Robert Andolina (Cayuga Heights Trustee) and Mayor Jim Gilmore (Cayuga Heights Mayor)

Started by: Jennifer Stein

Cayuga Heights -- a village embedded within the larger community of Ithaca, New York -- has been said to have the most Ph.D's per capita of any municipality in America. Yet its trustees are currently in the process of approving a dangerous, immoral, and frankly bizarre plan that calls for every single deer in the village to be either violated or killed. It seems these human-habituated animals’ appetite for tulips, heirloom tomatoes, and ornamental shrubbery has, in the minds of the current mayor and trustees, created a situation so dire and unacceptable, that action of the most extreme sort is not only justified, but urgently required.

The first phase of the "draft" plan they have already approved involves capturing 30-60 female deer, surgically sterilizing them, then puncturing their ears with numbered tags and encumbering their necks with radio collars. These are the "lucky" individuals. The intended fate of every other deer in Cayuga Heights, including pregnant does and fawns, is to be shot dead at bait sites at undisclosed locations and times. This annually performed massacre will be carried out by out-of-town contractors who earn their living exterminating wildlife.

The ethical grotesquery of this plan appears to be lost on those who conceived it, who seem to be oblivious to the mental and emotional torture that will be experienced by the few deer chosen to survive, not to mention the many people who care about these gentle animals. Year after year, deer in and around Cayuga Heights will be lured by piles of corn into the kill zone, and those marked for survival will watch as their herd mates are brutally killed right in front of them. Were such a sadistic policy to be carried out against dogs or cats, or horses, an outraged crowd would spontaneously rise up to stop it. But the deer, ironically, because they live free of direct human control and are no individual's private property, are somehow seen as unworthy of moral consideration.

After just one meeting where the public had an opportunity to offer public feedback on the proposal, which was only released in July, the village trustees voted to BAN ALL PUBLIC COMMENT about their controversial deer-killing plan during the 60 day period in which they would be discussing and voting on it. Since those of us who were attempting to be a voice for the voiceless were silenced ourselves, we asked people around the world to contact these legislators and demand that they let voices on all sides of the issue be heard, and that they adopt proven, non-violent alternatives to the outrageous killing plan being proposed. Thanks to the hundreds of people who already signed this petition, triggering emails to be sent to the respective decision-makers, the trustees at their next meeting decided to reverse their ban on public comments about deer. However, they still went ahead and approved a “draft” version of their irrational, immoral, and unnecessary deer-killing program. In the coming weeks, they will finalize their plan, which will sentence the deer of Cayuga Heights to an Orwellian fate.

Do we really want to live in a society where bureaucrats meet behind closed doors to arbitrarily decide how many of each species are allowed to live, then send technicians out to mark the few chosen to survive as ornamental reminders of a bygone era, doomed to move among us as freaks festooned with the trappings of their utter domination by humans? Do we want to cover the eyes and ears of our children as unsuspecting animals are methodically executed in our neighbors' backyards?

There are many people in and around Cayuga Heights who, through wise plant choices, and skillful use of fencing and deer repellents, enjoy beautiful gardens without causing harm to anyone. Mass killing and extreme control of the area's indigenous wildlife is neither necessary, nor ethical, nor safe. And if it is scientific at all, it represents science at its most twisted.

Everything about this plan is emblematic of the mindset that is destroying our planet. Because the trustees of Cayuga Heights have rejected proven and practical non-violent approaches to reducing deer-human conflict, because they refuse against all reason to allow residents to erect fences high enough to safeguard their plantings, because they have attempted to silence public comment on their controversial proposal -- should the rest of us just sit back and do nothing? Should we accept armed men firing deadly weapons in residential neighborhoods, to protect tulips? Or is it possible, with all the brilliant, creative and compassionate people living in Cayuga Heights and the surrounding Ithaca community, that a more sensible approach can be found?

Help us be heard! The letter below will go to the Mayor and two key members of the board of trustees. PLEASE ALSO COPY THE TEXT OF THIS LETTER AND SEND BY EMAIL TO THE OTHER TRUSTEES:

Trustee Diana Riesman: driesman@cayuga-heights.ny.us
Trustee Ron Bors: rbors@cayuga-heights.ny.us
Trustee Bea Szekely: bszekely@cayuga-heights.ny.us
Trustee David Donner: donner@cayuga-heights.ny.us

THANK YOU for helping us be a voice for the voiceless wildlife living in Cayuga Heights.

Learn more at CayugaDeer.org
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Contact us at contact@cayugadeer.org