PUBLIC HEARING – Weds, Jan. 29th, at 7 PM
Marcham Hall, 836 Hanshaw Rd, Ithaca, NY
Across from Community Corners, same building as the police station
Dear friends,
In December, we wrote to you about a new proposed law that will allow bowhunters and their deadly weapons into Cayuga Heights. Since then, the Cayuga Heights board of trustees has held two public hearings and made small adjustments to the law, which you can see in its latest form here: http://www.cayuga-heights.ny.us/doc/PLL-A-2014.pdf . Before they pass this new draft of the law, they are required to hold another public hearing, happening this Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 7 PM at the Village Hall (address above). Please attend. Even better, speak out. Better still, encourage others to join you.
This new law will allow deadly crossbows and compound bows to be discharged in residential neighborhoods — outside of hunting season, at all times throughout the year, including Summer, and even at night. In other words, there will be no time of year that it is safe for the people and animals in and around Cayuga Heights.
Every hunting season, stories come out about dogs, cats and other “non-target” animals being wounded and killed by hunters. In a recent TV news story from Wisconsin, a woman tearfully described how she found her poor dog under a hunter’s tree stand, dead from a mortal wound from an arrow. The dog was left there for 3 days, to painfully die in a pool of her own blood. Please watch and share this news story, as it demonstrates the kind of tragedy that can easily unfold when hunters are introduced into a densely settled community like ours: http://tinyurl.com/kw3ryo9
Bow hunting is notoriously cruel. Numerous studies show that more than half the deer who are shot with arrows are never retrieved, running off to painfully bleed to death or live with a debilitating open wound. Their prolonged agony and deaths are no less horrific than the one the Wisconsin woman’s dog experienced. Desensitization to the killing of deer leads to other forms of desensitization and violence. Let’s teach our community’s children to respect wildlife and other animals, not condone their killing.
And what about the children? At the Jan. 13 meeting of the Village government, Cayuga Heights trustee Stephen Hamilton identified the most likely area where bowhunting will occur, based on available open space: A piece of land between Cornell and Cayuga Heights. A citizen in the audience commented that there is a daycare center in that area. This appeared to be of little concern to Mayor Kate Supron (former co-president of the Cayuga Heights PTA) or her fellow trustees. However, during the discussion, trustees Liz Karns and Diana Riesman expressed their preference for having deadly weapons discharged by professional contractors overseen by the Village government. It is yet to be seen whether they will vote in favor or against the law.
Mayor Kate Supron is obsessed with killing. How else can you explain this latest move when nearly 100% of the does in Cayuga Heights are now sterilized? Numerous residents are commenting on how they have noticed fewer fawns this year, and less deer browsing. After paying $150,000 of taxpayers’ money to sterilize an estimated 95% of the does in 2012, the Village spent nearly $3,000 per deer to sterilize the remaining 12 at the end of 2013. So how does the mayor justify killing these same deer? The answer is, she has no justification other than her opinion that there are still “too many deer.” She contends there should be only a fraction of the deer that the village currently has, yet she refuses to allow the sterilization program play out long enough to achieve the desired result. She also refuses to address questions from her constituents about how she plans to prevent fertile does in surrounding areas from moving in to take the place of sterile does who have been killed by the bowhunters she now wants to allow in. Sadly, as we have seen over and over again, logic, reason, science and ethics have no role in the Mayor’s agenda.
This new law poses a threat to ALL of us, not just those who live in the village. Most of us drive on Cayuga Heights roads, many of us take walks, jog or ride bikes there. Hundreds of people live in proximity to the village border. The safety of their families and companion animals are threatened by the discharge of deadly weapons that could just as easily maim or kill a human as a deer. These neighboring residents are just as likely to have bowhunters trespassing on their land, and injured/dying deer show up in their yards, as Cayuga Heights residents.
The opposition is growing. Earlier this month, an open letter protesting the law, signed by 44 residents, was sent out to people who live in and around Cayuga Heights. Please join these engaged citizens and be a voice for safety, non-violence, and common sense!
Thank you for staying involved throughout this long struggle. We know it hasn’t always been easy, but there is no denying that our work together thus far has prevented the mass-slaughter of the Cayuga Heights deer, and all the violence and ugliness that an annual wildlife killing program would bring.
Your friends,
Jenny, James and Eric, on behalf of CayugaDeer.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Attend Wednesday’s hearing and speak out! Please also encourage others to join you, especially those who are most affected by this new law, and may not realize the potential risks to their safety.
If you can’t attend, please take a moment now to send a quick email to the trustees expressing your opposition to this new law. It can just be one sentence, the important thing is that they hear from people who are against the new law before they vote on it on Wednesday night. Their addresses are: mayor@cayuga-heights.ny.us; rrobinson@cayuga-heights.ny.us; psalton@cayuga-heights.ny.us; ccrooker@cayuga-heights.ny.us; ekarns@cayuga-heights.ny.us; driesman@cayuga-heights.ny.us; shamilton@cayuga-heights.ny.us; jsteinmetz@cayuga-heights.ny.us
CITIZENS FOR SAFE, ETHICAL AND RATIONAL APPROACHES TO REDUCING DEER-HUMAN CONFLICT
[Here’s an example of the unethical and irrational]:
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
Hunting is wrong and evil!!! Everyone is against it, so stop!!
Sent emails and shared~