Will the S.M. Park deer hunt become an annual event?
In the fiery debate over how to manage the deer in Shawnee Mission Park, Randy Knight heard it all.
| Nicole Reinertson |
| Randy Knight, community relations manager for JoCo parks |
One woman, who lives nearby, suggested scores of animal rights activists line up along the bank of the man-made lake and fan out methodically through the park, banging pots and pans to startle the deer out of the 1,200-acre green space.
Another resident proposed trucking in unseemly amounts of lion manure from the Kansas City Zoo, spreading it around Shawnee Mission Park and repelling the deer with the stench of their predators’ poop.
Most famously, the members of Bite Club of KC, submitted the concept of a Deer Auto-Assembler, which would create a deer preserve, possibly with an observation tower for animal-loving tourists.
Knight, community relations manager for the Johnson County Park and Recreation District, listened to them all. Personally, he hoped park officials would find a way to handle the deer without killing them. When the district decided the only viable option was a harvest with sharpshooters and bow hunters, Knight took plenty of abuse — one angry resident accused him of being an evil Republican on par with former vice president Dick Cheney.
But the outrage and the bloodshed might be a one-year affair.
