Friday, January 22, 2016

Ron Kerr's recent letter regarding Cranbrook deer cull

Ron Kerr has taken issue with Gerry Warner's open letter to Cranbrook which criticized their latest secret cull, speculating: “I wander (sic) if he gave any thought to the fact that to get those videos they probably had to trespass on private property in the guise of secrecy.”

For two years the BC Deer Protection Society has taken out full-paged advertisements in local papers in several communities asking for permission to enter neighbouring properties to observe the cull, even sending out postcards to 3,600 households in Oak Bay.  Residents have been asked to film permit violations.  During the January 2014 deer cull in Elkford residents contacted the BCDPS with photographs to report a violation of the permit by the contractor Carmen Purdy, who was trapping during daylight hours, necessitating an investigation by MFLNRO.  This January Cranbrook residents observed two permit violations, documented them, and sent video and photographs to our Society.

Ron Kerr made an easy $16,000 when he came to Oak Bay to kill eleven deer in January 2015.  A FOI request reveals that he was the only applicant for Oak Bay's Request for Proposal. The cull was “completed without a hitch” not because of citizen complicity but because the properties chosen could only be secured in a rich municipality like Oak Bay.  Mayor Jensen himself admitted to media that although several residents had offered their properties to traps it was decided that they were not “private” enough.  Only the most affluent of Oak Bay residents could receive taxpayer-funded clover traps.  As evidenced by events in the smaller municipalities of BC, clover trap/bolt gun culls are easily observed, and they are as cruel to residents as they are to deer.

On October 14, 2015 Oak Bay police were called at 7:30 pm to respond to shots fired.  A white minivan with a sliding side door was reported to have pulled up to a small group of deer on a boulevard in the in the tony neighbourhood of Uplands, Oak Bay, and opened fire. 

If violence towards urban wildlife becomes an accepted method to deal with urbanite complaints, we will raise future generations to accept that violence is the way to deal with our problems.  Urban deer culls are affecting many municipalities in BC.  Ron Kerr came to my region to kill eleven deer and left without detection.  It's my hope that this letter will end the accusation that “outsiders” are interfering with local issues. 

Kelly Carson
President, BC Deer Protection Society

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