D'oh! The deer.

As if this year was not bizarre enough, now we're having a deer die-off. No, not a competition among our local whitetail population to see who can be the most dramatic; I mean a serious illness is leaving deer carcasses all over the joint. 

I haven't witnessed this slaughter myself, but I have heard about it. There's a long walking / biking trail along the old train tracks in the county, and apparently the stink from rotting deer is making it most unpleasant.

Here's the word from the New York DEC:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today confirmed that several white-tailed deer in the towns of Nelsonville and Cold Spring in Putnam County and near Goshen in Orange County died after contracting Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD). EHD is a viral disease of white-tailed deer that cannot be contracted by humans.
    EHD virus is carried by biting midges, small bugs often called no-see-ums or 'punkies.' Once infected with EHD, deer usually die within 36 hours. The disease is not spread from deer to deer or from deer to humans.

Thirty-six hours from bitten to biting it! And we're upset about Chinese Death Virus.

It's believed that the frost will kill off the bugs; in the meantime, "Hunters should not handle or eat any deer that appears sick or acts strangely." Okay! And none of that Road Kill Café stuff, either! Don't go harvesting venison flambé or grilling a hamBambi from meat lying in the road. Apparently humans can't get sick from EHD unless we eat the damn thing that has it. 

Luckily EHD doesn't seem to affect cows or dogs or other more valuable animals. 

Let's face it: Deer are cheap. We've had to shove off most of their natural predators, and fewer people are hunting these days, at least in downstate New York. Deer population in the United States was about 300,000 in 1930, but 30,000,000 in 2014, a hundred times larger, at least according to the Koryos Writes blog's data. Cars and trucks can't keep the numbers down all by themselves, you know. And this explosion in deer numbers helps spread those sickness-carrying deer ticks that ruin the health of perfectly nice human beings. Deer don't even get Lyme. 

Deer have a lot of natural abilities that keep them going. They're fast, they're champion leapers, they can eat anything if they have to (even meat), they can fight like wild if cornered, and they give birth to up to three babies at a shot. They are, of course, not Mensa candidates. It takes a deer five minutes to realize a cement mixer is bearing down on him. In fact, deer are so dumb...

How dumb are they?

Google and Facebook are trying to get them to register to vote.

I don't know what the answer to deer population is, but I hope rampant fatal disease isn't all we've got. I've suggested commercial culling, but no one seems to be keen on the idea. Just call it "wild caught" or "free range" venison, though, and maybe the idea will catch on.