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  • From: "Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>
  • To: "gardenwriters-on-gardening" <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] picket line
  • Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 15:18:15 -0600

Larry Maxcy wrote
Raccoons (correct spelling) are not just cute little Disney animals.
Stay away from them and from their droppings. Just Google "raccoon
disease" to see what diseases, parasites, and other bad stuff they
carry. They also kill cats. Of course, some may think that's beneficial.

Deer aren't benign Bambis either. Just yesterday, I was driving east of Interstate 90 towards Chicago and a doe bounded out of the brush along the toll road into the slow lane. I maneuvered to miss her, but the car behind me wasn't as lucky. It hit the doe head-on, and it went through the car windshield injuring the driver.

In my rural neighborhood, it isn't unusual to see a buck with chronic wasting disease wandering in a bewildered fashion on the road, into yards and even the local junior high basketball court. As of now, there is no vector for the spread of chronic wasting disease to humans and pets, but...... Research is slow to catch up with the problems of nature. Chronic wasting was transferred to the deer population from other animals, and some research indicates that Mad Cow Disease may be linked. My point is that when an animal population mushrooms in suburban and even urban areas, the likelihood of viral, bacterial, parasitic and insect diseases crossing over to other creatures is great.

Don't get me started on the damage deer do. A young buck raked his itchy antlers on my Saturn peach tree trunk and cut wood all the way down to the phloem. The tree died, because no carbs or water were being transported upward from the roots. All my roses (46 of them) have to be netted with chicken wire in late fall, because the deer will eat them to the ground during the winter. They even stand on my front porch, lean over the rose bed and munch. One peered in our bedroom window one night and scared the crap out of me!

In my neck of the woods, the Forest Preserve District issues permits to thin deer so that too much damage and competition for limited food doesn't occur. PETA has objected, but has been drowned out by reasonable citizens and the Illinois legislature, which authorizes animal control in populated areas.
Doreen Howard






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