David Cantor, Executive Director, Responsible Policies for Animals, coined the term “biocaust” to define the widespread destruction of animals and the living world.  Closer to home, we see the massacre of deer in Fairmount Park year after year.  Wrongly called “culls,” these expanding and unrelenting violent physical attacks will continue with the goal “obliteration.”  One familiar professional and proficient deer serial killer even characterized these as “remote euthanasia.”  Imagine!

It’s been said that language is at the root of injustice.  Words are powerful.  They foster prejudice, intolerance and oppression.  Early on, deer were called “rats with hooves” and “noxious weeds,” among other denigrating terms.  There was never a kind word.  Expressions of empathy, compassion and respect are almost never heard even today.  Saying nothing sends a message that injustice is acceptable.  It isn’t.

Prejudice or discrimination based on species, not sound science, has led to the abusive and destructive wildlife policies of today; most familiar to us here are those affecting deer.  Philadelphia Advocates for the Deer will continue to expose and debunk the fallacies that sustain the ongoing killing of deer. Egregious flaws in the 1996 final report on deer should have invalidated it as a sound basis for killing the deer in Wissahickon Valley Park.  This fiasco has now infected all of Fairmount Park.  Education is key to understanding the needs and contributions of deer as well as how human practices and interference play a huge role in deer ecology.  Our goal is to secure freedom from the threat which comes to take countless lives in the dark of night.  We will be their voice until true justice is achieved.

Writer and activist Joan Dunayer reminded readers of her book, “Speciesism,” “that no cause is more important or more just than nonhuman emancipation.”           

Contact: maryannbaron3@gmail.com

Bridget Irons
Chestnut Hill