[The Bacon Guy]

Quote by: Matt Heres the post: "Ok...look at it this way. In Hawaii there are many species of birds, and when boats started to come to Hawaii, along came rats. Do we call the rats natural predators? No, we don't. Since they were there long after the birds were first put there. Deer were put in North America long before the first humans arrived. So if we consider rats and cats unnatural predators in Hawaii, we must do the same with people in North America."

But I don't consider rats and cats to be unnatural predators in Hawaii, so the argument doesn't apply. Like I said, anything which exists is by definition natural.

Quote by: Matt Natural predation would spare the younger, healthier ones, with more life to live, hunting would not.

Which isn't necessarily a good thing in terms of controlling deer population.

Quote by: Matt It could be killed by a natural predator earlier, but at least what killed it needed its flesh to live.

This argument has already been addressed. The "natural predator" will only need the prey's flesh to survive if we humans go to the trouble of introducing said predator to the ecosystem. There's no reason that we should.

Quote by: Matt Well, then go argue about it with Meriam Webster. It is the dictionary definition of the word, and thats what we should follow.

No, it's a definition of overpopulation and it's not the one to which my argument refers.

Quote by: Matt I think neutering the male deer would still be a good option. It would control overpopulation, no natural predators would have to be re-introduced, and hardly any hunting would have to be done to keep the population in check.

I doubt it would be practical or cost-effective to neuter an entire population of deer.