HomeMy WebLinkAboutBaker, A DEIS.pdf Public Hearing on the DEIS, 12/6/10 -
Angie Baker, Ithaca
In a recent interview with WSTM, Mayor Supron made statements designed to continue to
deflect the truth about how unnecessary, unfounded and extreme this plan to torture and kill
the deer of Cayuga Heights is.
She said, "There are people who say, well, the deer were here first." This objection is one of
the least voiced.
She went on to say, "But we live in a managed ecosystem, and therefore when it gets out of
balance, we have to manage the ecosystem." What Mayor Supron and the trustees refuse to
consider is that humans are also part of that ecosystem. Yet, responsibility for this so-called
deer problem is being placed only on the deer.
Mayor Supron concluded: "And we just have too many deer." Show the data behind that
statement. There is no data to back that statement up. There's only a supposition, and that put
forth by Paul Curtis, who stands to benefit financially by enactment of this deer remediation
plan.
Paul Curtis has also co-authored with White Buffalo, a company whose sole service is the
slaughter of wildlife, and who the Cayuga Heights trustees are looking to to execute their plan,
a publication entitled "Managing White-Tailed Deer in Suburban Environments — A Technical
Guide". In this guide, DeNicola, the owner of White Buffalo, and Paul Curtis, et al, in effect,
disparage all but execution of deer as the most optimal means of control.
Mayor Supron, and those who would put such an unnecessary plan as this into effect, are
then, being lead down this path of violence, carnage and community division by a group of
opportunistic people, who of course will provide all the assurances the board would like to
hear.
Along the same lines, the document recently produced by the Miller Consulting Group also
contains no definitive data, and is, in fact, basically nothing more than a duplication of the
narrative already put forth by the trustees.
Another glaring issue with this plan is the complete lack of diversity among those who sat on
the Deer Remediation Advisory Committee (DRAC). The members of that committee, to a one,
were, from the start, unanimously in favor of killing the deer, unanimously in favor of excluding
all other options.
There are many non-lethal, cost-effective, and successful options the trustees refuse to
consider, implement or allow.