The 'deer widows' curse

Letters to the editor are part of the entertainment within weekly and daily newspapers. Quite a few of the letters are "shoot from the hip" opinions that become a telling and sometimes shocking look at our fellow human beings, short on facts or common sense, yet displaying wild and colorful imaginations.

Other letters to the editor are carefully thought out, show the writer is well informed, and help readers increase knowledge on a given subject. You never know which kind it is until you start reading — unless there is a familiar signature at the bottom.

During years running our own newspaper, we received a letter now and then that was too far out, maybe mean-spirited, perhaps lacking any semblance of knowledge, and once in a while there'd be one stating something as fact but which was actually so misleading it would sully a family newspaper.

My favorite trick in those days was one I learned years ago from a college text. I would put the letter in a new envelope and mail it back to the person who wrote it. Tucked inside would be a short handwritten note on the newspaper's letterhead: "Dear Charlie - I feel you would want to know what's going on. Some sneaky person is writing strange letters to the editor and signing your name. Sincerely, G. George Ostrom."

Recently a local female "valley resident" has been sending newspapers strongly opinionated anti-hunting letters. Thought about her and others like her this past week while reading various animal stories off the AP wire.

First story was regarding the thousands of vehicle wrecks each year, which kill hundreds of drivers and/or their passengers in collisions with the growing herds of wildlife across the country. Is it better to keep antelope, deer, elk and moose populations in control by hunting, or is it better to kill 'em with expensive cars and go to the hospital while furnishing business to the body shops?

Next story was from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Sept. 25, where a man went outside to pick some tomatoes in his backyard. A buck deer was eating there, and it charged Ron Dudek with antlers down. The victim died the next day in the hospital from a blood clot in his lungs.

Montana story — 17-year-old Zach Lukenbill was delivering papers on the west side of Helena last Tuesday morning and came around a corner to face a big mule deer buck. "It was huge," he said. It charged, and luckily Zach was able to dive under a parked truck.

He says this was the fourth time bucks had stopped his paper delivery. After about 20 minutes, the buck found something else to do, and Zach made his escape. On Wednesday and Thursday, Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens found the four meanest bucks around there and shot them. The meat went to "social services."

Warden Sgt. Mike Ottman says they have had to shoot other deer as a "public safety action," but it is just a stop-gap way of dealing with individual deer that have become "more than just a nuisance."

Traditional management by hunting is off limits in town. He estimates there are about 350 urban deer within Helena's city limits, and no one has come up with a solution to the growing nuisance problem that is changing into a danger to humans. Fort Benton went through this same problem a few years ago.

Fourth story — at 1:30 last Saturday morning, the young woman was broke.

"I gave all my money to the guys," she says.

Luckily she had three bucks left to get a bite of breakfast before heading back to her home in Ogden, Utah. The lady was not talking about "guys" she knew. She gave her money to male strippers, The Men of Playgirl, who put on a big show at the Nugget Casino in Windover, Nev. This gal was just one of hundreds of women who travel there every year to "Deer Widows Weekend."

There are five big casinos in Windover, Nev., just across the line from Windover, Utah, and they all bring in "special male entertainment" for the deer widows. Managers say rooms are hard to find, and "this is one of our three biggest weekends." (Sounds more like a "peekend") The others are the Super Bowl and New Years Eve weekends.

As a longtime hunter, I'm naturally dismayed. Yeah, disgusted with women who would take the egg money and go roaring off to a wild Nevada weekend while their husbands and boyfriends are braving the rain, howling blizzards and exhausting toil in the wilderness trying to get food for the family table.

Maybe we can get some educated, sound-thinking, fair-minded people to start a "letters to the editor campaign" against this curse — "The Deer Widows Weekend."