Deer Culling Is An Unrealistic

Solution To Lyme Disease

To the Editor:

I’m the creator of the Animal Concerns Club at the Newtown High School. In November of 2008, my club and I began research about deer cullings and learned about the town’s possible plans. We spent months discussing information we found and attended several Board of Selectman meetings. Based on our research, I can strongly say, the idea of reducing Lyme disease through a massive deer slaughter is very unrealistic.

A deer cull is ineffective because it’s not addressing the problem at hand, the Lyme disease. Ticks have a two-year life cycle requiring a blood source twice in their lifetime. They feed in the spring in their nymph stage on smaller animals such as birds and rodents for five–eight days then fall off and continue to develop. It’s at this stage they may contract the bacteria that we know causes Lyme disease. By fall, they’ve matured and need to feed again, on larger animals like deer, raccoon, cats, dogs, coyotes, etc, and feed for approximately five–eight days then fall off. Ticks don’t die just because you kill the animal while they’re feeding. They will survive and continue to look for another food source. With the deer gone, it’s more likely that they’ll be on your pets and children.

Years ago, when our town faced West Nile Virus, our Health Department approved our town to spray a pesticide to safely kill the mosquitoes. Newtown has already used a spray called Cyano to kill the ticks at our local schools and town parks. So, why is it that we can’t continue to use that same tick sprays on other areas in our town that are proven to be densely populated with ticks.

My club has been hard at work getting the word out and educating people about the possibility of a deer culling. We distributed “Say No To Bait And Shoot” flyers and magnets at many stores in town. These flyers supplied a website, www.wildlifeeducationcoalition.org where residents could educate themselves on this issue. My mother passed around a petition to her colleagues and received great support against a deer cull from many local realtors. We presented a petition through the Newtown High School, receiving more than 425 signatures from students opposing the deer culling. That’s about 850 adult town voters and taxpayers who support their children opposing this deer culling. Recently, we’ve printed this website on shirts and bags with the help of the NHS graphics department.

The youth of Newtown wants our town to rise above the norm and educate our residents to take personal responsibility and protect themselves from ticks. We want to be a town that will solve this issue through education and compassion. The youth of Newtown are asking to be leaders to show other towns that we respect nature and we’re going to make a difference without this unnecessary bloodshed and without allowing hunting on our sacred open space.

Alissa Silber

NHS Junior

12 Berkshire Road, Sandy Hook                                  March 24, 2010