Threat of Axis Deer on the Big Island

[csgray]

RJ,
My questions for you in my post stand, whether you pointed your comments directly at me, or just in general. Do you really believe we should risk our ability to produce food on this island now, and in the future, because some hunters might want to add venison to their wild meat choices? There are pigs all over the place now, and the hunters aren't making much of a dent in the population, do they really just have to have another source of meat to survive? Once those deer are established it will be too late to eradicate them. Are you really willing to take the risk that the deer are as bad as some of us think they will be, because you think we MIGHT be wrong? The difference is this: if we are right, and you are wrong, agriculture and the last little bits of the precontact ecosystems are going to be severely impacted, if we are wrong and you are right, it is no big deal, life goes on the same, just with deer in the mix. That just seems like a heck of a gamble for a couple of guys with access to a helicopter to make for the entire island. Talk about wanting to change things!



Carol