>I don't know anybody that want deer gone from this earth. (except my father-in-law, who has had one too many cars ruined)
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>Coming from a rural area, I hear about all the problems caused by deer overpopulation, from as minor as a deer wandering into somebody's backyard in the middle of Des Moines and eating their garden to the major ones like somebody being killed in an automobile crash into a deer.

But see, that's my point. Until those somebodies set up shop there, that land was not their backyard. The deer are simply wandering where they've wandered for years. Along comes a human, sets up a 'yard', and kills deer for daring to trespass.

Same with cars. I realise that humans need some space. We are a crowding sort of entity, but where will the deer go when we've made sure there is no more such thing as a 'rural' area.

>What are you thoughts on fishing, or mousetraps for that matter?

I'm not much of a fish eater, so I have no real use for fishing. On the other hand, at least in fishing, you don't normally line them up in your scope and blast them out of the water. It's a tad more sporting than that - unless you're bottom dragging and using a huge net or some such nonsense. Again, I realise there is a purpose to fishing for food.

Mousetraps upset me. Any sort of animal trap upsets me. I just get cats and convince the mice to move next door. ;)

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>There are great programs like Hush, where you can obtain a deer license if you donate your kill to the DNR, who in turn makes sure it goes to a needy family.

That sounds useful. At least then the death of the animal doesn't only come down to trespassing or 'sport'.

>There was a pretty interesting story in Iowa about a man who ran a tree farms that was getting destroyed by deer. He got tired of the DNR trying to throw their weight around and tell him he can't protect his property from damage. He found an old Supreme Court ruling where a person is allowed to protect their land from the "government's" deer. He starting shooting deer that were damaging his land and calling the DNR to come and remove it, in hopes that they would charge him with something so he could fight it to prove a point. After a few years, they finally charged him and his court date is in March. They had a big article about it in the local paper over Christmas vacation.

Again, did he move into their territory and now he's killing them for being too stupid to vacate? Or did they come looking for him out of some sort of spiteful urge to commit vandalism?

It's the same old same old. "Hey look, there's a herd of deer. Let's build a house here and kill them for trespassing on our property."