Pennsylvania: Keystone State or Roadkill State?
 

This past weekend I had the pleasure of driving the length of route 80 in Pennsylvania, in places a beautiful drive. What was amazing was the incredible numbers of roadkill along the route, not only deer (well over 25), but birds, dogs, cats, foxes, possums, raccoons and others, who shall be referred to as "unidentifiable". I believe in the sanctity of life, but excess deer are a true menace to the roadways. What is the answer to the problem, short of calling in Ted Nugent and the boys?

you should drive in NJ. In some parts <BR>of Central jersey, there are deer lying on the side of the road every mile or so.

Grew up and frequently travel home (from NYC) to NJ and never had a problem or noticed large amounts of road kill. <BR>...The answer Oh Deer is that you get busy and write the tourist board, Visitor dollars with make an impact. Go online you could probably email someone as quick as you are posting. I would also go to the state's website and email the appropriate transportaion departmetnt. YOU ARE THE ANSWER OH DEER.

I'm rural Pennsylvania born and bred (but now living in Europe)--here's my view. 1) PA gets a LOT of fog, which makes it difficult to see many critters until it's too late. 2) the white tail deer population is huge, but even long hunting seasons haven't been making a dent. Eat more venison. 3) an amazing number of people in Pennsylvania drive cars with only one working headlight. Especially in rural PA. We saw so many over the years that now, *wherever* we see a car with only one headlight, everybody in the family says "Pennsylvania car alert." <BR>

I'd get some plastic devices that give out an non-audible noise to human ears but deers can hear it. You stick it on front bumper. By the way, I know what you mean, I've been on 80. Actually, at night there was a living deer right on the highway and my family had to put on the brakes to miss hitting it. You can't stop nature. Clear cutting makes it hard for the deer to live in their natural habits. I believe it is the fault of the humans and their need to strip land for malls and such. <BR> <BR>

I live in Pa too, and I agree, there is a ton of roadkill. I think the problem is that no one ever cleans it up. I understand it's hard to avoid hitting a deer, but to have to see it sit there and decay over the next 6 months is a litte much. Isn't someone responsible for animal cleanup?

There should be a 10 year moratorium on eating turkey on Thanksgiving, and everybody should eat venison instead. Those poor turkeys have suffered enough.

My in-laws live in Pennsylvania. I believe the limit on hunting deer in that state is one per year. <BR> <BR>In Alabama where we live, the limit is one per day.

If a major hunt is what it'll take to weed out the deer population, so be it. Like I said, I believe in the sanctity of life, but most of all I believe in the sanctity of MY life, PETA be damned.

After years of living in the Northeast, I still can't believe squirrels are so dense. The ones in my Maryland neighborhood know what cars are, they must see scores of their brethren meet an untimely death-by-SUV, and yet they still dart out in front of me, then do this sort of squirrel head-fake that makes it difficult to figure out how to miss them. Yuk!

Cindy, the answer to that problem is a good mouser!