Bow Hunting On The Ballot March 15

Scenes like this follow bow hunting ordinances in every community.

What hits close to home this election if you are registered in Parma, Parma Heights, Seven Hills, Broadview Heights, North Royalton, or Strongsville is your “yes” or “no” vote on bow hunting in the form of on an “advisory” election March 15.

By looking through the lenses of game managers, biologists, hunters, official public records keepers, published data, and testimony from residents in communities where bow-hunting ordinances have passed, or may pass, I will PROVE that bow hunting does not reduce numbers, is cruel, economically motivated, does not increase public health and safety or protect the environment, and there is no basis for the hunting ordinance.

First, know thy enemy and his language, his propaganda: The ballot terms “limited hunting” by “licensed individuals” from “elevated platforms” and “under the supervision of the Chief of Police”  is grossly misleading. Limited hunting defies logic, even for those who still think lethal measures can reduce populations. Licensed individuals simply means residents who purchased Ohio Division of Wildlife hunting permits. Elevated platform requirements are not enforced in other communities. Police chief supervision is misleading; public records show most chiefs and forces are lax, don’t enforce, and don’t prosecute violations. “Five contiguous (adjoining) acres” and ‘written permission” from all property owners are troublesome because public records across the region reveal trespass, untracked/suffering/impaled deer in others’ yards, and numerous hunters on one or two acres.

Fact:  Bow hunting results in a 51 to 53 percent error rate. Deer can run a mile with a pierced lung. For some, slow death, infection, and dehydration follow, no matter how “regulated." “Licensed hunters” wait until deer bleed out before retrieving them.

Fact: Residents in every community with hunting ordinances continue to report untracked, suffering deer, dead or alive, impaled through the eye, face, neck and other body parts. Many bow hunters have confided in me that suburban bow hunting is not safe.

Fact: Game management agencies like Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODOW) admit hunting perpetuates robust, rebounding populations. ODOW maintains populations between 50 to 75% carrying capacity, a researched, publicized sweet spot that guarantees “maximum sustained yield” for hunters.

Fact: ODOW revenue is down. Public records show recently retired ODOW Director Scott Zody chiding colleague/biologist Geoffrey Westerfield (covers Cuyahoga County) to get hunting going here. Westerfield’s reply compared officials’ confusion to little kids struggling to put together pieces of a Lego set.

Fact: Six communities will charge – separate from state hunting license fees -- $150 per resident bow hunter. Independence, with just 7,000 residents, has about 80 to 100 licensed bow hunters. If these six other communities combined boast about 150,000 residents, and enthusiasm for hunting is proportionate, that means thousands of hunters times $150. Killing is motivated by profit!

Fact: Cleveland Metroparks’ deer slaughter in the West Creek Reservation the past three years has caused them to seek refuge from the reservation to our neighborhoods, by ripple effect. We perceive more deer; there is no proof there are more. Forty more deer in West Creek, some just six months old, were killed this season in the name of “conservation,” while our $75M levy helped pave over and develop West Creek.

Fact: Officials know nothing about deer biology, but claim populations have reached levels that “threaten public health and safety.” Look at the facts:

• Cuyahoga County Board of Health: no Lyme disease; white-footed mice, not deer, are the prime vector
• City and state deer crash records spanning five+ years for this area reveal: no human injuries or fatalities, very minor vehicular damage in 97 percent of the cases, and forty percent erroneous reports
• ODOW data: no Chronic Wasting Disease or starvation in Ohio wild deer
• All six communities: no landscape property damage records provided
• No ground or aerial counts, like on the east side and in Lyndhurst where, despite officials’ approving the horrific cage and captive bolt kill method, few deer were located.

Fact: What does Lyndhurst have to do with us? Lyndhurst officials killed deer based on Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership’s (LEAP) recommendations, from a grossly outdated conservation model, and LEAP is the reason it’s happening here, too.

. . . Fact: LEAP is a consortium of “conservation” groups whose members ratified the “Position on White-Tailed Deer” in Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability May 2013. Though required by Ohio Sunshine Laws to provide public records, Cleveland refuses to, but has allowed LEAP, prime mover of deer killing across the region, to hide behind private entity status while operating under the radar. LEAP and the Cuyahoga County Mayors and City Managers Association have bypassed the public process. Boycott LEAP member organizations: visit www.leapbio.org/members.

If you live in one of these six communities, and want a ‘VOTE NO HUNTING MARCH 15’ yard sign, or if officials vote for hunting after this advisory election, visit www.sevenhillsdeer.com to find out how you can help with voting blocs and/or referendums, the latter of which must be done within 30 days.