Are Deer a Threat to the Ashland Community?

For the past several years there have been a lot of complaints about the deer within the Ashland, Oregon community. There has been much talk about the deer within the more residential areas of Ashland as being too aggressive or even too dangerous for people and dogs to be around. About five years ago, the Mayor held a meeting in regards to the issue of the deer to help find a solution that helped solve the problem that many of the residences were facing. However, after the convention from five years ago, not much had changed and the deer within Ashland still continued to be aggressive and dangerous. Due to the ongoing issue, the Mayor decided to hold another open meeting to Ashland folks who wanted to speak upon this issue in hopes that a better approach would be addressed. On September 23, 2015, the second meeting discussing the issue of the overly aggressive deer was adjourned.

Many people came to this open meeting, some pro-deer and others against. A man by the name of Allan Sandler spoke about the issue in more of a pro deer focus. Allan believed that the issue of the deer was very serious, but would rather take a softer approach to the issue. He stated that he worked very heavily in the educational film industry and proposed the idea of filming an educational clip on how to treat the deer in a more approachable manner in hopes that the people of Ashland would reduce the stress and aggravation towards them. Allan states that the issues with the deer is “an educational problem”. Allan states that if we could produce some material for the schools so they learn how to deal with deer and some of the issues that have been prevalent for quite some time, that maybe this could help us create a safer environment. Allan states that “it takes us, not the deer, to make this all work”.

While Allan’s approach was very soft spoken and seemed like a very logical way to go about the issue, a woman named Juliette Doddie had some different views on the deer issue. She spoke about a very serious incident she encountered with her dog. Juliette stated “I haven’t been able to go out and walk my dog in three months since we were attacked twice.” She stated that the deer within her neighborhood were all very aggressive and she and her husband feel threatened by them. She no longer feel safe to walk around her neighborhood after being attacked twice in the same day by two different set of deer.

While the views on the aggressive deer continue to be split down the middle on whether they should be removed all together or whether we educate ourselves on how to react to the deer in a more approachable manner, the city of Ashland is still working on coming up with the most acceptable approach o the deer issue. I think it’s safe to say that many people within the city of Ashland are heavily involved with the issue and only plan on working together to make Ashland a safer and stronger community.