Deer Slaughter Successful

Yayyyy!! Maybe they can send the deer corpses to local schools so children can learn to distinguish between the kinds of animals allowed to exist in nature, and the kind that must be shot down by us valiant humans -- protectors of order! It would give those children something they could actually benefit from.

Deer video.

Nuthin' like a good, old-fashion deer slaughter. Whoooo-doggie!!

our society has entered a strange blip...

strange blip?

Personally I think it would be good to have kids learn to hunt. Nearly all of us eat dead animals, there is nothing wrong at all with hunting. As long as the animals are eaten.

appletony, that's one buck who go quietly into that good night.

who WON'T go...

I have no problem with hunting for food. Trophies, now that's another story. What are they doing with all the slaughtered deer anyway?

They are sending the carcasses (not "corpses" by the way) to a USDA approved butcher and sending the meat to homeless shelters and families in need.

That way, nobody will see most of the meat get thrown out -- they disburse the throwing-out task amongst the needy.

Per baristanet "The deer will be butchered and donated to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey."

well, maybe "corpse" is appropriate, but I always think of it meaning a human body...

deer hunting

Why would anyone, needy or otherwise, throw out the meat? I may be a spoiled princess but even I know there are other food sources then Montclairs restaurant row.

ROC, I suspect a tinge of regret that you may not have personally served in the armed forces with your endorsement of hunting above. Something like that, some kind of semi-visceral rue on your part. To truly "eat" what what one hunts requires utilization of animal parts not normally found on menus. And hunting as a pastime has been in decline for decades. Do you really see the need for kids in camo? Your own offspring, even? Sometimes I think you're just being silly.

We also, in the main, eat commercially rendered animals, not prey we've personally brought down. I cook quail frequently but they come from Corrado's, are not the cute little buggers who gather at the bird feeder most days.

The claim that all the "harvested" venison is going to community food banks is such a crock. Nobody is simply going to eat that much deer meat and, as appletony notes, it's just going to be thrown out. The deer is not nearly as much a proven friend to us in this fashion as the pig.

From Da Yoopers:

It's the second week of deer camp and all the guys are here.
We drink, play cards, and shoot the bull but never shoot no deer.
The only time we leave the camp is when we go for beer.
The second week of deer camp is the greatest time of year.

Dear Barista,

PLEASE stop reporting on this horrible subject. Makes me sick and sad everytime you mention it.

http://current.com/items/85284231_hunting_for_the_homeless

Deer Video Here

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1683688,00.html

Help out the needy by sharing all or part of your fall harvest with the New Hampshire Food Bank. Once again this fall, they are collecting donations of whole or processed game animals for distribution to more than 350 food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and group homes statewide.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/105-12172007-1457489.html

all fake, no doubt

"In 2006, Hunters Sharing the Harvest coordinated the delivery of nearly 200,000 meals of venison to hungry Pennsylvanians."

:[

It is just so cruel to take an innocent point and just beat it to death.

Really, ROC, you're overdoing it, in the process abandoning your usual healthy skepticism. It is in the interest of all those groups whose press and video releases you're touting to hawk their own "successes" in feeding the needy.

But as I pointed out above, the deer in no way equals the pig in the many, many ways it can be utilized. There is no such thing, for example, as either pickled deer feet or deer scrapple. And as even the diaries of early 19th century trappers always noted, a diet of venison palls very quickly over a long winter. Those gifted with harvested deer meat will become bored very quickly with it, will definitely lack the culinary skill and pantry ingredients with which to make it taste interesting night after night. So while I realize you were shakily trying to make some kind of point about self-reliance and the reality of where our table food comes from, you over-reached rather baldly....

No, the only point i was trying to make was the lack of basis of both your and appletony's assumption that the meat would go to waste.

But tell me, is there a basis for the assumption?

I am all ears.

I like it when hunters shoot each other and themselves - sometimes by accident. Keeps down on the hunter population.

Mind you, I personally have no idea if the meat is wasted or not, but even a cursory search brought up quite a few articles about the success of such programs.

now, now, cathar! how do you know there's no such thing as deer scrapple? I've had deer jerky!

Euterpe, it is far, far better that you have tried deer jerky than me. I now await racks with blister cards of the stuff at QuickChek. (Or is it "QuikCheck?" I forget.) I also really, really like scrapple.

Actually, ROC, you were trying to be contrarian as a way of being noticed. (It's rather common practice here, if you haven't noticed, I may have done it myself a few times.) But in a bit more bludgeoning manner than is usual for you. I still doubt very much you'd blow $1000 or so apiece on your children at Dick's and then send them out into the woods to bring home dinner for the next month. Unless, of course, it turns out you live in a little house on the prairie somewhere.

As I noted, too, your "cursory search" really only revealed cuddly "coverage" of the claimed success of such programs by the administrators of such programs, which allows them in turn to keep their jobs another year. This allows you to discount my and appletony's skepticism, but it in no way makes your case. Our skepticism, at the very least, is based on some basic understanding of cooking, food marketing and how the poor and needy shop and cook for themselves.

Kill them all.

As I've written before, deer are nothing more than big rodents that carry ticks which cause Lyme disease.

They did this on Monhegan Island, Maine and it almost eliminated the tick population.

Even the Report Summary from the Deer Management Task Force from Millburn seems to suggest it.

How do the deer not have a fair chance? Deer aren't the stupid creatures that you animal rights wackos think they are. They avoid all sorts of predators every day besides humans.
Perhaps it would be better if we only allowed the hunters to use bows and arrows, or spears? Oh the cruelty, you'd cry. You freaks would rather see the parkland decimated and all of the deer herd die, than responsibly culling the herd using sound management practices.

"Animal rights wackos".

Charming.

ROC is right in the sense that we've all become quite disconnected from the origins of our food. To live by eating the flesh of animals is pretty fundamental to human history, vegetarianism aside. Because we never see it, we're overly squeamish, and it's this squeamishness that PETA and organizations of its ilk exploit.

Running through this whole deer brouhaha, also, is a failure on the part of many the squeamish and muddled to recognize that humans, like it or not, are the de facto custodians of this planet, and as such we are increasingly going to have to make the tough calls that previously nature or God, whichever you prefer, was allowed to make on His or Her own.

"I still doubt very much you'd blow $1000 or so apiece on your children at Dick's and then send them out into the woods to bring home dinner for the next month. "

you're right I certainly wouldn't. Did I say I would? Never mind, that's not really important is it?

"But in a bit more bludgeoning manner than is usual for you"

Thanks for the mild-mannered lessons.

"Our skepticism, at the very least, is based on some basic understanding of cooking, food marketing and how the poor and needy shop and cook for themselves."

No, it's cynicism.

cathar - I agree, scrapple is the best! I may actually have been weaned on it, haivng spent most of my summers in Philly as a kid!

Now ROC, that wouldn't be you telling others what they REALLY mean, would it?

When you're called out here, ROC, I always picture you recoiling a bit. As if you're personally hurt.

But no one who posts as tellingly as you usuallly do about government waste via tax monies should be surprised that others post at times out of quite similar "cynicism."

Euterpe, it tok me many years before I ever read the label to learn what scrapple is made of. Amazingly, we both still love it. And you certainly can buy it in Jersey markets, and get it at diners from about Point Pleasant south.

ROC doesn't do that!

"...that humans, like it or not, are the de facto custodians of this planet..."

Sez who? There are species that are hardier than us (some insects), those with much longer lifespans (tortoises) and guarantee you that if got lost during a photographic safari in Kenya, you would not feel like the "custodian" of this planet.

I'd like to try it! (scrapple, that is. not ROC).
What's in it? (scrapple that is, not ROC).

Even though it's necessary, I still find the slaughter - and I prefer to call it a 'culling' - ineffably sad.

Deer can be destructive and dangerous. That's a given. They are also marvelously beautiful and graceful creatures.

"Prof" calls them 'rats' and in doing so, he denigrates this species and himself.

Many years ago, I saw a fawn standing and walking for the first time out in the woods by the Delaware river. I was forever transformed by this unique moment of natural beauty. The poignancy of the moment nearly overwhelmed me.

Goodbye dear ones goodbye.

it's one thing to post cynically and call it cynicism and quite another to puff it up into some kind of expertise about "marketing" and "cooking" or "how the poor and needy shop and cook for themselves."

I certainly admit to being a cynic about the government and taxes.

I generally am not, however, when it comes to private charities. (or really regarding lots of other things, in fact I am usually rather optimistic).

But when snap judgements are met with contrary facts, it's time to go on the offensive in forums such as this.

We see it time and time again.

It's the way in which we talk AT each other and not to each other. Make that rather, the way in which we talk AT ourselves.

Having lived in Pennsylvania "deer country" for a few years, I was gifted with deer meat quite a few times. The best ways I found to eat it was to make a sauerbraten from the roasts or add pork to the ground deer meat. Otherwise, it wasn't very edible. If I wasn't so frugal, I would be tempted to let some of it go to waste.
As a non-hunter, I was never critical of those who were because they ate the deer and pheasant they hunted. It wasn't a very high income area.

Lets just say, Cro, that its the stuff left behind in a processing plant that wasn't quite good enough to be used for hotdogs, and marginally better than what you'd feed livestock. However, its absolutely freaking delish.

In all seriousness, venison is delicious. Nice sensationalist link bait subject line, baristanet. Wacky liberals.

"I'd like to try it! (scrapple, that is. not ROC)."

"What's in it? (scrapple that is, not ROC)."

croiagusanam - an affirmative answer to the first question is generally never accompanied by the answer to the first!! Scrapple ain't for sissies!
Check it out: Scrapple

Croiagusanam, the mighty meat "product" (well, it's not just meat, anyway) is made of pork snouts, pork faces (is this any worse than pricey veal cheeks on menus?), cornmeal and spices. Some brands are heavier on the spices than others. Parks is a good one to start with, but there are butchers and small packing plants out Lebanon, PA way who are true specialists. It comes in a loaf. Fry it up in slices until it develops a crust on both sides. I like mine with ketchup running into it and my egg yolks. It's sort of a PA Dutch equivalent to white pudding.

Now, ROC, you sound positively put out. You seem to be pleading your superior (if somewhat detached) sensitivity. For a moment there, you even reminded me of, well, Oprah.

All in all, Miss Martta, the wilderness is being encroached upon quite rapidly, from all sides--climate (don't tell ROC), logging, development, erosion, agriculture etc etc. The cockroaches may outlive us, but for the nonce we're the only species that makes conscious decisions over the fate of other species. It's a responsibility.

The "Environment is being encroached upon by the climate".

That's one for the books!

Dude, it is.

oh, I know. And the atmosphere is encroaching the planet. And the sky is surrounding the clouds. And the ocean is smothering the sea floor.

No argument here.

"Prof" calls them 'rats' and in doing so, he denigrates this species and himself."

Nah, I called them rodents. But rats work for me too.

But still, if deer were tiny with beady eyes and a slithering (!) way, would you care so much?

Is it the Bambi thing?

Listen, I love Templeton (Lynde not Buscemi), but I'd still call Dial Pest Control- they advertise here- kill him dead.

Sounds no worse than blood pudding in terms of ingredients, and that's delicious. I'm trying some!
Besides, I have to use this coupon I got from Mountainside for a complimentary triple bypass.

Wel, since you've elected yourself custodian, Walleroo, there's a spill in aisle 4.

Jeezus, you're in a pissy mood today, ROC.

Whether or not you believe in global warming, changing climate is decimating many wilderness areas. If you want to quibble about the word "encroach" because you're having a bad day, go ahead.

And after you've tried scrapple, croiagusanam, if you're truly curious, I will happily bring up for you, via my next trip down South Carolina way, a bottle or two of the seemingly South-only phenomenon of "hot" ginger ale. It comes in three varieties, and none resemble Canada Dry save in coloring. It really is a spicy way to wash down pastrami on rye. Far hotter than ginger beer from Jamaica or Vernors of Philly, too,

And then there's "Cheerwine," another worthy Southern soft drink which you can't find here. And NEHI in all the fondly remembered flavors!

(Even to sip the ubiquitous "sweet tea" down South is to risk instant diabetic shock. Damn but those people live so well in so many ways, I hope they realize what a Godsend $25 for 5 lbs. of fresh-caught local shrimp is compared to King's prices. Then there's Palmetto beers and ales, Goo-Goo Clusters....Hey, who needs venison?)

oh, brother, now youare going to start with me?

It was a JOKE walleroo.

-signing off.

It was a JOKE walleroo.

Oh.

I wasn't really being cynical. I really think that a lot of recipients of venison are going to end up not using it much. Nonetheless, we need as a society to dress up some of the ugly-looking things we do.

I think the Edgemont geese are more likely to actually be consumed by the recipients (at least on a percentage basis) than the truckloads of chewy, chewy deer meat looking for mouths.

About 6 years ago I drove to Charleston, by way of the Cape Lewes ferry, Bridge-Tunnel, past Saigon Sam's in Jacksonville NC, through Wilmington, etc. What a spectacular part of the world, and what great food. There was a place -- you may know it -- a dump on an island off the road to Folly Beach which serves roasted oysters and the like, with bottles of beer -- cash only, looking out over the marshes. I can't remember the name, but it was fantastic. They scoop the oysters out with a snow shovel and dump them on your plate, and the shells get tossed wherever. Fantastic.If I survive the scrapple, I'll contemplate the hot ginger ale.

Okay, Miss M., but first I'm going to have to check your ticket.

In my youth, I ate pig's ears, pig's feet, tripe, and oxtails but I would prefer to avoid those products now as much as possible. Golly, who is that woman from Boston who's famous for using every animal part in her cuisine? She actually resembles the animals that she serves.

I LOVE oxtail soup. I also hate to admit that I have a recipe for chicken neck stew.

Next time any of you visit the Denver area you have to go to the 'Fort' in Morrison and order the Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Very tasty!

That may well have been, croiagusanam, the "Beach Road Hideaway," and it has been torn down to make way for condos, alas.

The area oysters usually grow in clumps, not separately. So they "roast" the clumps and serve them to you in huge steamy grey masses the size of an octopus with an oyster knife to open on your own. True, knowing locals, however, carry their own blades precisely for such happy occasions. Not, as far as I can tell, to facilitate muggings.

Yes, it is a lovely, generally unknown up here area. From Wilmington on down to Savannah, including Myrtle Beach. Even Beaufort, SC should be known for much, much more than hosting Parris Island. Hunting Island State Park, nearby, is the most spectacular and unspoiled beach I've ever seen in America.

Yes, foisting off venison on the homeless is like when Elaine tried to foist off the muffin stumps. Insulting.

Man, I never thought that I'd find so many people who like scrapple. Growing up in SE PA (the middle of the scrapple belt), that grey block of mush was a regular fixture of our Sunday morning breakfast. As a kid I liked it if it was slathered in ketchup, but I lost my taste for the stuff. There is too much good food out there to waste time and calories on that slop.

Any day now, we'll see scrapple heralded as the new "in" food and versions of it will find their way onto menus at New York's haute spots.

cathar, it was the Bowen's Island Restaurant -- it has apparently recently reopened after being closed for a time because some of the place "fell in", or so I'm told by a friend who lives there part-time (just called her). What a dump! Apparently, it is still a dump, but the food and the atmosphere are brillant.
Wish I was there.

Like rats, kill one and all you have succeeded in doing is making more food for the remaining rats. What we need are wolves. AHOOOOOOO! Full moon and all that. But when one snags Fido, owned by a shooter, he will see red and grab his gun. I wish deer could sink his fangs into such such sweet revenge, but there you have it.

Most threads on this blog quickly evolve into discussions of cuisine - with an impressive variety of tastes.
The many occasions I have dined on venison I have found it to be quite lean and flavorful, particularly when served with a fine raspberry sauce. Certainly as good as, if not better than, fine beef or lamb and probably much healthier.

I wonder how Republican gun owner tastes to a deer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LruIyenf4Q

Slop it may well be, spicoli, but if the New York Times does an approving article about chefs finding new uses for it in restaurants, it will suddenly become CHIC slop, and they will douse it in pomegranate sauce, grate goat cheese into it, etc.. (And I would so like to be ahead of the culinary curve for once, although there was a time I stockpiled Clark bars, for naught.)

Never ate at the Bowen's Island place, Croiag.... Drive by it often, but it clearly wasn't the place I was thinking of. The real tragedy is that local SC oysters have such a short season, and that it ends next week. After which down there they'll just have to get by on Florida oysters. (Life is so very hard.) If you're ever round the Charleston or Savannah areas again, try the Gilligan's mini-chain, they make a point to only serve locally caught seafood and the Yuengling is always very cold on draught. This of course out of oyster season usually limits you to shrimp, grouper, scallops and wahoo, but for some of us those are the four basic food groups anyway.

imagine all the pesticide residue in the venison that is being donated to the food banks..

Good point. Thank goodness there's no pesticide residue in the food that us people with homes eat.

China strikes again

MellonBrush, I've had many similar moments with the deer while hiking up in Harriman State Park, a place BTW where hunting is not allowed. I know what you mean.

Harriman isn't at all analagous to South Mountain - it's an order of magnitude larger, & the deer population of the area is conrolled through transportation & allowed hunting in adjacent areas.

It's an uneasy coexistence. Before we came on the scene, predators would remove the slowest & weakest members of the herd. I fear that schemes like that perpetrated at South Mountain will ensure the slaughter of the fittest.

A similarly thoughtless approach to fishing led to the collapse of the North Atlantic cod population. God knows what we're doing to the deer.

A similarly thoughtless approach to fishing led to the collapse of the North Atlantic cod population. God knows what we're doing to the deer.

There's no comparison there. Fishing stocks in the North Atlantic and elsewhere have collapsed due to overfishing wrought by high consumer demand and highly efficient modern fishing methods.

The controlled deer hunt is designed to reduce the population to a sustainable level within the park. Deer populations across this country are thriving quite well. Part of the reason is, as you noted, because humans have eliminated other natural predators. But the other reason is that the human-altered landscape is actually quite favorable to deer (and also Canada geese, which is why there are so damn many of them these days).

So, unless venison suddenly explodes in popularity (which I doubt, based on what I read above), you need not fret for the deer.

There are many truly threatened species in this country that are far more worthy of your concern.

The cod population crashed because of the size restrictions - it was assumed that the best way to sustain the cod was to fish the big (older) ones & leave the little (younger) ones so that a sufficient level of reproduction would be maintained.

In reality, we were culling the strong ones, the survivors, & leaving the young & the ill. We selected for survival of the weakest. They became vulnerable to disease & starvation & populatiosn plummeted before overfishing became such an issue. Not that overfishing helped, of course.

I realize that the situations may not be analagous. Then again they may be. This is but one example of how we learn as we go along.

And duh, yeah, I'm aware that there are a more
seriously threatened species. And I'm suitably concerned.

I would rather feed the deer than kill them. Take my tax dollars and use it to buy kibble for the deer.

DEER SLAUGHTER SUCCESSFUL
great headline, Baristanet.
I guess you have no deer on staff.

That's a good one, Perlstein. Would you feel the same way if we were talking about rats? Mosquitoes? E. coli?