Letters to the Editor: Deer 11.05.15

This Awful Project

Montauk

November 2, 2015

To the Editor:

 Two local residents, Dell Cullum and Ilissa Meyer, have repeatedly called attention to flaws in the Village of East Hampton’s deer sterilization program. As soon as the program was proposed, Meyer, who manages a veterinary practice, warned village officials about potential hazards. But the village went forward, hiring the White Buffalo firm to sterilize deer. In January, the White Buffalo staff captured and sterilized 114 does. The staff identified the does by putting tags on their ears.

Then, in the spring, Cullum became aware of a terrible outcome. Several people, knowing Cullum was a wildlife rehabilitator, phoned him about tagged does who were dying. Cullum saw that they were trying to give birth. He did everything he could to save several deer, but to no avail. Their babies were already dead.

 It turned out that the surgery was performed in a village Department of Public Works shed in unsterile conditions. A photograph appeared in a newsletter showing two vets without surgical gowns. They seemed to be performing surgery in street clothes. Meyer tried to visit the setting but wasn’t allowed in. At Cullum’s urging, the state Department of Environmental Conservation performed necropsies on two of the dead does. Its analyses revealed that one doe had dirt, grit, and sand in her uterus. Although the source of this debris isn’t certain, it very may well have resulted from unsanitary surgical conditions.

 White Buffalo reported three deaths among the 114 does sterilized in January. The D.E.C. necropsy report says that in the spring and early summer six more sterilized does were reported to have had pregnancy or birthing complications. Cullum tells me that the number is over twice this high.

 White Buffalo plans to return to East Hampton Village to sterilize more does. Indeed, they may already be in the village, getting ready. The village officials shouldn’t allow them to continue.

 The sterilized does have migratory routes that take them well beyond the village boundaries and onto town land. So the town board also has a responsibility. Everyone who cares about animals should call for a halt to this awful project.

BILL CRAIN

President, East Hampton

Group for Wildlife

Report of Doe #61

East Hampton

November 2, 2015

Hi David,

I thought it was important that your readers be updated on a particular tagged deer that was discussed controversially over this past summer, Doe #61. Recent early-hour sightings of White Buffalo scouting in the Georgica area could mean an earlier start to the second phase of the ever-so-secret East Hampton Village/White Buffalo deer management experiment. What better time to announce some of the facts mentioned in the necropsy report of Doe #61 that I think many will find interesting. I feel this information clearly shows the abuse and inhumane treatment being forced upon the deer involved in this cruel experiment.

Last June, I was called to a residence where a tagged doe (#59) had collapsed trying to abort two badly decomposed fawns. I helped the suffering deer pass the dead young, along with infectious septic fluids, before she expired. About a week later, I was again called to the scene of a collapsed tagged deer (#61) at Buell Lane, by the East Hampton Village Police Department. When I arrived, I noted the animal was alive and suffering severely. Her back end was black, rotting flesh, and maggots were quite active, exiting both vulva and anus. I asked the officer to put the animal down quickly, which was done, and then asked that the state Department of Environmental Conservation be contacted so the deer could undergo a necropsy, to determine the cause of its suffering prior to death. The D.E.C. picked up Doe #61 and transported her to a freezer facility to await examination.

My previous letters over the summer regarding these two incidents brought a new and ugly perspective to this so-called experiment, which, up until a certain photo was leaked on the Internet, was shrouded in secrecy. A few shills defended the Frankenstein-like tactics. Some even reminded me that I wasn’t a veterinarian, so my theories and observations were irrelevant. It was obvious that all attempts were being used to discredit my belief that these poor animals’ demises were the result of not only the experiment itself, but the poor and unsanitary surgical process the deer were being put through. Both the appalling Internet photo of the surgery being performed under horrendous conditions and an interesting necropsy report notation now confirm my suspicions.

Then there were those individuals who purposely tried to misdirect the public with misinformation, for the sole purpose of hiding the actual truth. When asked, the village reported Doe #61 was thought to have been hit by a vehicle. Wendy Chamberlin, who is no stranger to contradiction, was quick to post a social media comment about Doe #61 on June 19,  stating, “I saw the doe on Buell Lane and inspected her. She did not have maggots on her, she did not have necrotic skin on her hind end.” I publicly responded to her statement to let people know that in fact she was not present, as I was the one called to the scene by village police and she was not there at all. It was a complete fabrication.

On July 2, Wendy Chamberlin again commented about Doe #61 in The Sag Harbor Express, stating, “The second doe I saw as well. She was emaciated and debilitated. No necrotic skin, no maggots as so gruesomely described in some venues by Dell Cullum.”

Now, folks, let me quote from the newly available completed necropsy report on the condition of Doe #61 when examined. “Three-year-old female. White ear tags: 61. 30.3 kg [66.7 pounds] . . . hair starting to slip, active maggots in anus/vulva (despite sitting in freezer over the weekend) . . . vulva myaisis and necrotic tissue . . . dried feces in tail and around anus, myaisis, necrotic tissue . . . adhesions between omentum, uterus, intestine. Peritonitis.”

“The uterus from Deer #61 had the skeletal remains of two fetuses . . . At some point Deer #61 developed a severe bacterial uterine infection that resulted in euthanasia.”

The entire necropsy report is now available from the D.E.C. via the Freedom of Information Act. Not only does it tend to support my claim that the sterilization experiment is causing severe suffering and inhumane results on the subject deer, but it also confirms my statement that Wendy Chamberlin was not present at the scene of Doe #61, and yet feels compelled to report misinformation that not only harms the deer but disrupts the process of finding a more acceptable way to manage them. A true burden in the search for a solution.

If this information still doesn’t move you to look deeper into the inhumane methods being used by White Buffalo, hired by the village to slowly eradicate the deer, let me once again remind you of the photograph floating around the Internet, showing a doe (tagged #27) strapped upside down to a lunch table covered with an unsterile bath towel, in the unsanitary confines of the East Hampton Village maintenance woodshed, being operated on by out-of-state veterinarians in unsterile street garments with no sterile draping. The photo is quite disturbing, yet it certainly answers the question of why the entire experimental program is such a secret. From what I see, it’s also unethical, inhumane, and likely criminal. Incidentally, the very doe pictured on the table (#27) died during or just post-surgery, as reported in the White Buffalo final report.

Following the deaths of both #59 and #61, I had 15 similar calls up until July 31.

 Let me conclude with a tremendous shame on you, Village of East Hampton, if you’re going to allow this to continue, but also with another interesting quote from the necropsy report of Doe #61: “The right horn of the uterus has coalesced with the small intestines in large fibrinous mass, both walls are breached and there is sand and some pieces of grain in the uterus, and brown liquid pus.” I wonder how the sand and debris got in there? Actually, I don’t wonder at all. Just refer to the Internet photo and it’ll be all too clear to you as well.

Visit: cvhs.okstate.edu/news/alumnus-helps-control-deer-population to see photo.

Necropsy report available through the D.E.C. via the Freedom of Information Law.

DELL CULLUM

Nature’s Way

East Hampton

November 2, 2015

To the Editor,

Answering Joanne Pilgrim’s article on deer munching: Marguerite Wolffsohn, East Hampton’s town planning director, cares passionately about the forest’s ecosystem, as do I. However, just as humans go to the supermarket or farm stands to purchase their food, deer are unable to do that, so they eat what they have been eating for hundreds of years. They eat what is available to them.

The thousands of trees that are fully mature at 20 to 50 feet live a very long time and their canopies of leaves block out the sunlight from the forest floor, thereby making it difficult for any undergrowth to flourish. The deer are unable to eat any leaves above the five-to-six-foot level, so they munch on the easily available small plants and shrubs. Ms. Wolffsohn and Andy Gaites call it damage to the forest floor; I call it nature’s way. Ms Wolffsohn’s solution, like everybody else’s on the deer management committee, is to cull, or as the state would call it, managing the deer.

These animals have been shut out of their homes by fencing. They are forced to live in the street. These gentle, graceful animals have a right to live. They’re not damaging the forest; they are doing what comes naturally to them, what they are supposed to do. They live in the forest, where they have a safe haven (sanctuary). That is their habitat. Man destroys the forests every time a house is built upon the land. Bulldozers clear and thereby destroy the trees and underbrush. Most homeowners desire an unimpeded view of their estates. They have their homes, their views, and then they add six-foot fences, and if that isn’t enough they add two feet of razor-sharp wire on top, Which render the deer incapacitated.

When Ms. Wolffsohn says, “just take a look at the woods, a browse line is an indication that there’s too many deer.” I say, just take an aerial view of the Town of East Hampton, it’s evident that there are also too many humans. McMansions, swimming pools, and tennis courts have replaced the deer habitats and have driven them to the sand dunes on the beach.

The problem is Ms. Wolffsohn, Kathleen Cunningham, and company do not acknowledge that these animals have been here way before the village was established. These animals have roots here. They are peaceful. They do not beat their wives or children. They do not kill. They do not have guns. Nor do they spray pesticides. They just want to survive. If Marguerite Wolffsohn and her followers think that the forests will perish and we will be left with open meadows, so be it. That’s the way God works. That’s nature. It’s the circle of life. What’s the matter with beautiful meadows?

Wake up, people. The number of birds, butterflies, insects, praying mantis, bees, grasshoppers, and hundreds of other creatures and insects that have been killed by folks spraying lawns, trees, bushes, and shrubs with pesticides are gone forever. There are bottles and cans of Monsanto and Dow pesticides on shelves in your own garages. RoundUp and other toxic chemicals are used on your lawns.

Look in the mirror. Man is the most destructive animal. Farrell and other construction companies have run amok of local zoning laws and open spaces. They have purchased as many open lots as they can grab, then build huge “spec” homes for huge profits. The problem is not the deer, it’s the local politicians, the planning boards, the attorneys who push for variances, and the Department of Environmental Conservation, which is in the business of selling hunting licenses to everybody, including teenagers.

How about the airplanes that spray poisons to stop West Nile disease? How many cases of West Nile disease have we had on the East End? Everyone wonders why the ponds, small bodies of water, lakes, and streams are devoid of small fish, crabs, lobsters, dragonflies, bees, and butterflies, and why is women’s breast cancer the highest per capita in the nation here on the East End? Don’t blame this on the deer too.

RON DELSENER