OPINION: Animals shouldn't have to die for drink
Growing up in Montana, there are things I take for common knowledge that aren’t — one being our disregard for our wildlife, namely deer.
I often hear people say the “stupid damn thing jumped out in front of me, causing $3,000 worth of damage to my car, truck, SUV, etc.”
I’d say the deer lost more — its life. Deer and most animals need to take water twice a day, usually at dawn and dusk. They take trails and routes that each generation has taken for thousands of years. And in case you haven’t noticed, every stream, river or lake has a road running next to it.
A deer may have to cross several roads to find water. They may even have to cross four lanes of U.S. 93 with cars traveling up to 75 miles per hour.
It’s not that deer jump out in front of you but that you smash into the side of them. You have auto damage — they’re left dead on the side of the road. Worse, they are injured and left to die a slow, terrifying death out of sight. Even worse, the people in the car are injured or killed. I ask you to take a moment’s thought.
Now is the time when the fawns will be following their mothers to drink. The doe will go first, the fawn hesitant to follow. The doe may even stop on the road or turn back. If you kill the does now, the fawn will die too, never knowing why its mother left it alone. If you kill the fawn, the doe will be devastated and disoriented. And if you think animals don’t have feelings — that’s all they have.
I live on Crane Mountain Road. There’s a wildlife path beside my house. I’ve noticed the same doe for years. She’s an old doe now and most of her fawns were killed by cars. Two summers ago, I saw her acting oddly in the meadow beside my house. She was loping in a wobbly manner in a random way. I went out to look at her and heard her sounds. If you think animals don’t cry, you’re wrong, they do. I found her fawn smeared on the pavement.
Animals don’t understand roads or cars or people and they shouldn’t have to die for a drink. —Jean Marie Yatch, Bigfork