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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992                   TAG: 9201220402
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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CONSEQUENCES OF HIGH COUNT OF DEER

REGARDING David L. Smith's letter (Jan. 6) on banning hunting, I couldn't have expressed it better. The simple fact is, the deer count is high. Why are people not able to understand what happens then?

I like to see deer myself, but not as many as I do standing alongside the road when driving to work in the dark, sometimes others running after the first one if he runs in front of me.

Do the farmers wish more deer because they look nice? If not, why not? Do they have a good, logical, valid reason for needing control? Deer starve, get thinner when overpopulated. The nut trees this year will help for more young, hence bigger herds, farmers' crops destroyed, more on the road, etc.

In the Smokey Mountain range, 100 wild boar, at least, are destroyed a year due to overpopulation. The park is only so big. Makes sense to me.

Finally, I do not consider anyone who hunts deer a measly two weeks a year a "killer," as I've read in other comments. Again, the logic just isn't there. VIVIAN S. ERRINGTON GOODVIEW

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