Pendragons Princess

I found the following clipping in an old school folder with other articles on human overpopulation:

From The Hartford Courant, Thursday January 20, 2000

The Problem Is Humans, Not Deer.

I am writing in regard to the recent controversy over the deer hunt in Groton [“Bluff Point Deer Hunt Allowed,” Page 1, January 12]. It seems that those in favor of the hunt believe that they are acting in the best interest of the deer because, due to the overpopulation of deer in the area, most of the herd will die a slow death of starvation that is “less humane” that a quick death by bullet.

The reason the deer in the area are supposedly overpopulated is due to the fact to another species’ overpopulation - humans. The deer herd is too large due to a loss of habitat caused by human development in the area.

Human overpopulation is the main threat to a fragile ecosystem, not a herd of deer. There are millions of starving people in the world, and this too is due to human overpopulation. The more we feed hungry people, the more people reproduce. Then we have even more hungry people starving. The only way to really cure the world hunger problem would be to thin out the population. Wouldn’t this be “more humane” than allowing millions of people to starve to death each year? But I don’t think anyone would endorse the idea of “thinning the herd” of starving people with shotguns and orange vests, even in the most overpopulated parts of Africa or Asia.

I am not saying that I think we should solve the problem of world hunger with a manhunt. What I am saying is that we should not accept a fate for our fellow animals that we are not willing to accept for ourselves.

- Katie A. King, Wethersfield, CT

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This article brings up an interesting viewpoint: while legally organized hunts of wildlife have been held in order to reduce the “swelling” population of wildlife in certain suburban areas, mentioning that the swelling human population must have cures of its own has its own taboos of just how do we do it. I agree, I don’t think anyone would legally endorse eliminating starving people with guns - after all, we have wars to “take care” of that problem - but in reality, it does not do anything to reduce world hunger.
The other problem is, even in poor nations with a high rate of hunger, they also have high rates of birth, particularly in Africa. There are in fact more humane solutions to overpopulation and one of them resides in the childfree community over the world.