Warning: This article contains graphic images of dead deer.
By Dawn Frary, Iowa City
Dear City Council members,
I am a resident of the Northside neighborhood in Iowa City, as well as a founding member of the Iowa City Deer Friends. I just returned from a walk in Oakland Cemetery, where I discovered a White Buffalo bait site set up behind the maintenance shed/garage near the gate between St. Joseph Cemetery and Oakland Cemetery. This site is literally yards from the front doors of families in my neighborhood, where shots can easily be heard and the aftermath — blood-soaked ground (which will only be more obvious due to snow cover), deer fur and bloody tissue, all of which I discovered at another Oakland bait site during the previous round of sharpshooting — will be on display for all who pass by to see. And as someone who frequents the cemetery for recreation and exercise, I know firsthand that many, many residents of this area pass by that spot and will be exposed to a grisly scene indeed.
I’m sure you’re aware that members of the Iowa City Deer Friends encountered two deer carcasses that had been shot in the head and back, respectively, at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in December 2019. The bodies of these deer were found near a playground, left to decompose and be ravaged by other wildlife in plain sight. This raises immense concern because White Buffalo’s contract stipulates that all deer corpses must be removed from the scene; and yet they claim to not have killed any deer in that area. This means either White Buffalo is not being truthful in their practices or, worse, that there are rogue killers prowling our parks, taking advantage of the sharpshooting free-for-all, killing indiscriminately and leaving animals to rot in the open. This is a waste of a precious life and a disgrace to our town, not to mention horribly irresponsible and dangerous.
To my knowledge, the information about the deer corpses found at TTRA has not been made public. Iowa Citians deserve to know what is going on: that there are potentially armed, off-the-grid killers roaming the spaces in our city that should be safe.
I hope the fact that you had the power to prevent this from occurring but did nothing to stop it keeps you up at night. I hope it fills you with regret and shame. It should. Your job is to represent the people of Iowa City, but instead you have chosen to represent the interests of government agencies who will profit from savage brutality and murder.
I am usually proud to call Iowa City home. Iowa City has historically been a progressive, liberal and thoughtful oasis in, for the most part, a sea of conservative small towns. In most cases we can point to Iowa City as a beacon of hope, an example of a higher evolved community. Instead I am disgusted and ashamed that my city has been forced to cater to the lowest common denominator. We are better than this.
This is why Iowa gets labeled as a backward-thinking, uncivilized, uneducated flyover wasteland.
Shame on you.
The photo above was added to the article on Feb. 5.
Deer may need to be thinned at times but this is UNACCEPTABLE. Besides, I wonder how often the public is put in danger by the sharpshooters. Someone needs to oversee these contractors much as any other contractor or they will take advantage and cut corners at the expense of the public.
First off, the writer has no evidence that these deer were shot. Deer die in the woods all the time, more so when there is an overpopulation. Secondly, your just using scare tactics to suggest rogue shooters. Third, it’s a whack-a-doodle conspiracy theory to think government agencies are doing this to make money. The DNR isn’t making anything off the sharpshooting, and would make a paltry amount off licenses if there is a bow hunt. The biologists at the DNR are trained professionals in wildlife management, which follows the tradition of Iowa’s own Aldo Leopold. They would always make recommendations on how best to manage the deer herd based on science.
I took these pictures and have close-ups of the bullet exit and entry. When examined in person, it was very clear that the deer were shot.
The DNR will make money off the bow hunting licenses, not the sharpshooting. Most state DNR programs get a huge portion of their revenue from hunting and fishing licenses. That paradigm needs to change, and thankfully is doing so in a lot of places.
Aldo Leopold, an Iowan, author, and great conservationist, wrote of a “land ethic” in which plants and animals should have “at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.” According to Leopold, humans must change from “conqueror of the land community to a plain member and citizen of it.
The petition signers of Bluffwood neighborhood demonstrated their abhorrence towards the “land ethic in which plants and animals should have at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state” that Aldo Leopold sought and supported.
The DNR/NRC repeatedly denied city council approval to pursue non-lethal deer management.
NRC’s acting Division Administrator
commissioner, Dale Garner’s 7/11/2019 NRC meeting rejection of Iowa City’s sharpshooting/non-lethal proposal was because “a private, commercial approach runs counter to the Natural Resource Commission’s mandate to allow Iowa’s sportsmen and women the ability to manage the state’s herd.”
I was in attendance at the meeting, as well as have email correspondence with Garner and other commissioners in which they stated that “Iowa is short of public hunting land. Therefore, Iowa City needs to revise their proposal to add bow hunting.”
It is ludicrous that Iowa City will become a bow huner’s playground, when non-lethal methods have proven successful in other municipalities.
Lori,
Leopold also wrote the book and taught game management, which includes hunting. This approach leaves a spot for a sustainable population in a natural state. Non-lethal methods are not sustainable.
Hunting and fishing licenses fund wildlife conservation.
That needs to change. The “wild” areas have become managed hunting grounds rather than true wild spaces. For example, states that are very reluctant to encourage and reintroduce wolf populations since they will decrease the elk/deer population more naturally. It’s a myth that hunting and fishing actually keeps wild spaces truly wild.
Allison please look at the states that you are referring to and tell me do they have the same land development practices that Iowa dose no the don’t farming has changed everything about Iowa since the 1970s from cancer on the grounds and food to in the air we do not have the land space to Sustain other wild animals that are not native to Iowa I dint know about you but I don’t want to next one on the dinner plate when all the wild deer , turkey and other various small game go extinct due to you rash thinking acting like this will only get you killed by a critter in the long run
The City boundary is the South edge of that property. They were probably shot on land in the County, which is legal to hunt, then wandered that far.
A deer tag is 28.50. That is not going to add up to a lot for bow hunters allowed to hunt in Iowa City. The DNR has a budget of 223,000,000. Please. Stop spreading conspiracies. City staff ARE representing the interests and desires of most citizens.
Boggles my mind…… calling a cemetery a wild place…… There is no such thing as a wild place in the entire state of Iowa. Get in your car and drive north for 8 hours. You start hitting semi wild, then go 5 hours more and you hit wild. Deer are a beautiful creatures and a resource. They should be protect and managed. It takes both,
I really blew this off until I saw someone bring up wolves. You want wolves move north. They will NEVER come back to iowa. We do not have the space, we can Never support the territory involved with a pack. They will eat your lab, they will steal farm animals. They will be RIGHTFULLY shot on sight be people protecting such things. People need to read about the horrible diseases that affect areas of deer reaching overpopulation.
Everything should have a place and be protected for future generations. The rights of deer watchers and the rights of sportmen and Women.
Everything should be managed, never have I seen a plan to eradicate whitetails.
Yin yang for gods sake
Fred Granville is right. Deer die in the wild for other reasons besides being shot.
And, Ms. Jaynes, if you have photos of bullet exits on these carcasses, you should have posted them – so we have an idea of what caliber and type of shell were used.
Police on site at Terry Trueblood the day the deer were retrieved and moved to IC Animal Control concurred that there was definitely a head shot to one deer.
DNR claims by the time they received the deer for investigation the bodies were “too decomposed to positively determine a cause of death for these two deer.”
If you weren’t present at the scene, it’s best that you refrain from speculation.
And yet, you weren’t there when the deer were shot, and you’re wildly speculating.
We submitted the close-up pictures, but they did not print them. They have been submitted to the Council, so you can find them in the archives.
This is not an act of a hunter I’m very tired of us good citizens and patrons that work hard to protect you from near death by wild animals every day traveling in your neighborhood and all you can do is say hunting is bad because you don’t participate in the acts of a hunter gather , If this act were done by a hunter and a true sportsman the animal would not be left for all to see you might see a gut pile and as a hunter I understand that this can be seen as a gruesome sight to other passing by as we are taught by the DNR to leave as little behind so in knowing what I do about myself and the hunters I hunt with this deer was not shot by a hunter but a poacher this is a person with the intent of mass killing and extermination of animal and if this is the case the DNR will do a DNA test on the deer a (CWD) test witch is chronic wasting disease and a various amount of animal medical conditions that could cause death in the wild , if gunshot wounds are present and considered life threatening to the animal or cause of death the DNR will do ballistics of the firearm and FYI a bullet fired from a gun can be traced to one firearm because like people guns have a fingerprint you can trace one gun to one bullet even if it is smashed and looks like shards and trust me people hunters and DNR are not out to make a profit from hunting in fact in the state of Iowa DNR make less per year in come than you would think. Very little of the fund if for DNR it’s for improving air ,water and land quality so you can have better drinking water , and cleaner air to breath a true hunter is one to give back to the land . What I mean by that when take one from nature you give what you don’t eat or won’t use back to the nature so others animal don’t die and the string of life don’t spin out of control to were other forms of management are need. Like the mountain lion or bobcats in southeast Iowa many have been sighted and authorities have been notified. We don’t need more predators out there that are not native to the Area because were things are not native they will adapt they will and can exterminate everything around them small game big game even children what ever they don’t fear they will kill. So before you go and say a hunter and the DNR are bad and what they do is wrong think are you going to drive today and will you hit a deer , will you get mauled by a wild un native cat if you don’t think your conservationists and conservation board for keeping you safe
I endured the Cedar Rapids bow hunt for 11 years before moving to Iowa city to escape the horrors of arrow wounded deer, strangers in my neighborhood with weapons, rule violating bow hunters, etc. This is the story of one of several deer illegally shot in my yard by a hunter on foot (confirmed by the DNR).
https://www.all-creatures.org/hope/DOE/4%20-%20The%20Unforgivable%20Case%20of%20Braveheart.htm
Mr. Granville, I didn’t speculate. I contacted Iowa City Police… and am now relaying statements made by the Iowa City Police Officers that conducted the on site investigation prior to transporting the deer to animal control.
Cody, take a step back from your self-appointment as protector of Iowa Citians from “near death” experiences. As a retired Marine, I’m capable of protecting myself. Not all who refuse to label wildlife as “game” are uninformed on protective measures and conservation, nor are all non-hunters ill equipped to succeed in the area of self protection or conservation. If hunters in Iowa were successful in managing wildlife populations, Iowa wouldn’t be second in the nation for deer vehicle incidents. Do your homework, at one time black bear, bobcat and gray wolf were native to the entirety of the Midwest. They were among the dominant predators of the land prior to human expansion into their habitats. Hunting of wild populations is almost always nonrandom. Wildlife of certain size, morphology, and behavior are more likely than others to be removed from the population by hunting. Such selective removal brings about genetic change in hunted populations. Minimizing the impact of sport hunting on the evolution of hunted species should be a major preoccupation of wildlife managers. Instead IDNR coerces local municipalities to open their communities to sport hunters.