When you think of possible problems for a cemetery, wildlife wouldn’t be high up on your list -- grave robbers and vandalism, yes. Deer, no.
Nonetheless, the Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pa. has a very serious problem with a deer herd running a muck around their property.
About a dozen or so deer are running around the property causing some real havoc for some of the locals and the owners of the land. Damaging tombstones and jumping into traffic are only a few things that have caused a stir in the local community.
“I’ve always seen the deer as an attraction, a beautiful piece of country life in the city,” said Kathy Grim of Pricetown, Pa.
But locals are crying foul over the officials' possible solutions to the problem. Here are the options:
- Option 1: Hiring sharp shooters with the USDA Wildlife Services to take out the herd.
“Nobody wants to see Bambi killed, but something has to happen,” said Reading City Councilwoman Donna Reed.
Seriously? Instead of trying or figure out a way to maybe scale down the deer population or have some local wildlife outreach group offer options, the cemetery wants to just off the deer.
Thankfully the public got wind of what their plan was and because of all the negative attention the owners called off the hunt -- for now.
- Option 2: Do nothing and let the deer commit suicide.
With the hustle and bustle of a city atmosphere, deer are bound to get intrigued by their surroundings. So instead of killing off the deer, the cemetery could leave the deer alone and then have to worry about cleaning up dead deer bodies around the property later on.
According to Reed, “One of the deer failed to jump over the fence on 5th street and was impaled and there was no way to save it.”
- Option 3: Relocate the deer, which could possibly kill them anyway.
The cemetery did look into trying to relocate the deer to a natural habitat, but experts told them that the deer would not survive the move. Bummer.
A decision has yet to be made, but Reed believes the live hunt is the best route. The cemetery's owners also plan to donate the venison meat to the less fortunate should this option be chosen.
