Almighty dollar more important than public safety

Kudos to small town, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. The town leaders, very concerned about property damage and motor vehicle accidents with an ever-increasing deer population, would like to shoot them. Not with bullets or arrows but with a contraceptive called Porcine Zona Pellucida. In five years, they expect to reduce the herd by as much as 40 percent without killing a single deer. The contraceptive is obtained from pork slaughterhouses. With 20-plus million hogs here in Iowa, there should never be a lack of supply.

Here is where the problem lies. Game management agencies in every state with overpopulated deer herds bring in millions of dollars every year by selling licenses to kill deer. Using a contraceptive is counterproductive to their monetary objective.

I don't believe we will see widespread use of game contraceptives in any state. The power of the almighty dollar takes precedence over public safety and a reduction in property damage.

Merle Wilson

Jesup