‘Funeral motorcade’ for Shawnee Mission Park deer this afternoon

The deer death toll has already surpassed 300, but the activists in Bite Club of KC aren’t about to give up their campaign to save the fuzzy mammals in Shawnee Mission Park.

Today, though, their tone is taking a turn — from road-blocking, blood-spattering, deer-head-hoisting outrage to a somber death march.

According to earlier reports from the Johnson County Park and Recreation District, the first deer harvest in November didn’t pare down the overpopulated deer herd to ecologically manageable levels, so today marks the opening of a bow hunt by carefully screened archers. At 2 p.m., activists are planning a grim “funeral motorcade” as a means of protest, cruising their placard-plastered cars through Shawnee Mission Park, Oak Park Mall and, finally, Johnson County Community College.

It won’t be Jason Miller leading this charge, though. Anthony Marr, an animal rights activist from Canada, traveled to Kansas City for the motorcade this afternoon. And tonight he’ll use the Shawnee Mission Park controversy as a platform to launch an international anti-hunting coalition.