Dying for a drink

Growing up in Montana there are things I take for common knowledge that aren't. One being our disregard for our wildlife, namely deer. I often hear people say the "stupid thing jumped right out in front of me or $3,000 damage to my car, truck or SUV." I'd say the deer lost more, his life.

Deer and most animals need water at least twice a day, usually at dawn and dusk. They use trails and routes that generations have taken for thousands of years. In case you haven't noticed, every stream, river and lake has a major road running beside it.

A deer may have to cross several roads to reach a water source. To reach Flathead Lake they may have to cross as many as four lanes of traffic on Hwy. 93 at speeds up to 75 mph.

It's not that deer jump out in front of you, but that you smash into them. You end up with body damage while they are left on the road dead. Or worse, they are injured and left to die a slow and terrifying death out of sight; or worse yet, the people in car are injured or killed.

I ask you to take a moment's thought, now is the time when fawns will be following their mothers to drink, not necessarily at dawn or dusk. The doe will lead as the fawn reluctantly follows.

The doe may stop in the middle of the road or even turn back. If you kill the doe now, the fawn will die, too, never knowing why it was left alone. If you kill the fawn, the doe will be devastated and disoriented. If you think animals don't have feelings—that's all they have. I live on Crane Mountain Road next to a wildlife path.

I've watched the same doe for years. She's an old doe and cars have killed most of her fawns. Two years ago I saw her acting oddly in the meadow beside my house.

She was loping in a wobbly manner in a random way. I went out to look at her and heard her sounds. If you think animals don't cry, your wrong, they do. I found her fawn smeared on the pavement. Animals don't understand roads or cars or people and they shouldn't have to die for a drink.

Jean Marie Yatch

Ferndale