This is no place for deer hunting

Most Sleepy Hollow residents probably agree deer have become a nuisance. The village's environmental committee has been asked by the board of trustees to investigate the matter and report back. In seeking to assess support for an answer to this problem, an unauthorized poll was posted on the village website and has since been removed by village authorities.

Contrary to the historic practice of transparency (no hidden objectives) in village affairs, which is a source of pride, the poll question was intended to be misleading. It asked for a "yes" or "no" response to whether one favored a no-firearm reduction in the number of deer in Sleepy Hollow. It failed to say that a "yes" answer would also be considered to mean that one favored reducing the number of deer by bow hunting instead of some nonlethal method of dealing with the situation as most might have assumed.

Many were misled by the fraudulent poll and results are now claimed to show popular backing for bow hunting deer. This is not true, of course, and even if it were, the village board is constrained to act lawfully and not permit bow hunting, taking into consideration: 1. Sleepy Hollow is a wildlife sanctuary in which killing deer is not allowed; 2. The village board is responsible for public health, welfare, and safety, and shall not endanger residents; and 3. The law prohibits cruelty to animals.

The foregoing does not even take into account the harm bow hunting deer would do to the image of Sleepy Hollow as a quiet, peaceful place to live that village boards have worked so hard to preserve over the years. Becoming a deer-killing village would be appalling and incomprehensible.

Walter S. Heffron

Sleepy Hollow