Letter to the editor: Deer hunting in Pittsburgh

I hate to be a Gloomy Gus. It’s too easy to lay into all the horrible, depressing, negative things that are happening worldwide. Russia. Ukraine. Our uniquely American relationship with uniquely multifarious China. Fortunately, for most people, there isn’t enough information presented on the evening news to act upon. World affairs are slogging along without much input from the voting public. What is a committed armchair politico supposed to do these days? I’ll tell you. Pick your doggone battles. I’m sad because our lovely local population of deer are being culled.

Last night I was watching an old rerun of “Barney Miller” when the doorbell rang. A buck and a doe, their front hooves loaded with pamphlets, apologized for the inconvenience and tried to explain that they have nothing against anyone’s stupid looking mini gardens. Only a minority of deer leap over people’s picket and chain-link fences to eat lawns and gardens. Most deer munch unwanted weeds in vacant lots, where there used to be someone’s house. People’s failure to maintain property is one of many reasons deer have been doing so well here. And now they are, through no fault of their own, being twapped to death with crossbows.

We humans have far to go to reach the humanity of does, bucks and fawns. I feel slightly better knowing poor people will get free venison out of all this urban hostility, but still, sometimes a man needs to vent. It’s lousy the way deer get treated around here.

Bruce Reisner

Perry South