I'm sure the Public Information Office is giving high fives for the new reporter from The Almanac. Luke Campbell has been covering Mt. Lebanon's meetings for a short time now, replacing Harry Funk. I know from RTKs that the Divine Ms. M had some issues with the reporters here, except the PG's John Hayes, the PA Game Commission's mouthpiece. Luke Campbell's
Professor offers Mt. Lebanon commissioners affirmation on deer management delivered the message that the PIO wanted to get out. Except for a few minor details.
As I have written here before, but you won't read it anywhere else:
- Paul Curtis never stepped foot in Mt. Lebanon.
- Paul Curtis didn't know how big Mt. Lebanon is.
- Paul Curtis is in cahoots with Anthony DeNicola, president of White Buffalo, the "non-profit" organization hired to kill deer in Mt. Lebanon.
This will never be brought out to the unsuspecting public. Don't ya just love how Mt. Lebanon controls the media?
"“My experience has been that controlled hunting helps, but I haven’t seen a community in New York who has reached a goal on the hunting program alone,” said Curtis. “It really takes something more aggressive. You have to do it for a foreseeable future and not just stop after the program becomes successful.”
ReplyDeleteOf course, he'd say that guaranteeing— his co-author and pal income for years to come.
Didn't anyone think to ask why— if we reduced the herd by over 200 deer there wasn't even the slightest dip in deer related accidents?!
Very, very interesting!
ReplyDelete"One of the speakers who will be appearing on the one-sided panel Thursday night is Paul Curtis (http://www.cayugadeer.org/news.htm#Curtis), an associate professor in Cornell’s DNR and the architect of Cayuga Heights' deer-killing plan. According to the Village's "Cost Analysis," Curtis’s department at Cornell was slated to receive up to $275,000 over the course of several years for vaguely defined duties that the Cayuga Heights Trustees refused to specify, despite several public inquiries by their constituents (see The $275,000 Mystery In Cayuga Heights http://www.cayugadeer.org/news.htm#10-12-10). Right up until the day the trustees voted unanimously to approve the nearly one million dollar killing plan, Prof. Curtis never disclosed his conflict of interest to the public, despite the fact that he was repeatedly presented by the Cayuga Heights government as an objective Cornell expert.
Equally troubling, Prof. Curtis grossly misrepresented the peer-reviewed research of world-renowned scientist (and Cornell Veterinary College PhD graduate) Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, who happens to be the chief developer of a non-lethal wildlife fertility control technique called “immunocontraception." The misinformation put forth by Prof. Curtis was then actively propagated by Cayuga Heights officials to their constituents, despite its gross inaccuracy being pointed out to them in writing on numerous occasions by local citizens, including a refutation by Dr. Kirkpatrick himself. This misinformation, which Curtis never corrected, contributed to the widespread belief that his proposal was the only viable option for Cayuga Heights. What was not made clear to the public when Prof. Curtis was being presented as a Cornell expert was that, if his plan were selected, it would lead to a lucrative multi-year consulting contract for his department at Cornell, funded by Village taxpayers."
http://www.cayugadeer.org/wecandobetter.htm
Wonder if Curtis' advice was paid thru incidental, undocumented and miscellaneous expenses incurred in the culls?
"What was not made clear to the public when Prof. Curtis was being presented as a Cornell expert was that, if his plan were selected, it would lead to a lucrative multi-year consulting contract"
ReplyDeleteMulti-year cull. Sound familiar?
Triple J was being presented as an expert from Bryn Athyn College, when in fact, he was DeNicola's monkey.
Elaine
From the same link:
ReplyDelete“"Mr. DeNicola said he doesn't want to mislead anyone into thinking culls are a one-time deal,' says a 11/15/09 report in the TOLEDO BLADE. 'He likened deer management to mowing lawns - that is, it requires regular maintenance.' So, while the Village speaks of a “stabilized” herd resulting from their publicly funded Cornell experiment, Anthony DeNicola talks of a mandatory long-term relationship based on the need for ongoing “maintenance” killing.
What kind of lesson do we teach our community’s youth by giving this person a license to carry out an annual mass slaughter in our neighborhood backyards? (Triple J said that it is a teaching moment.) And what about the significant number of people in our community who have a connection with individual deer, who care about animals in general, oppose senseless violence, or have chosen to live in this community because of its peaceful culture?
Is there any other municipality in Ithaca where elected officials have shown such callous indifference, and have willfully chosen violence over the many non-lethal, noncontroversial solutions to deer-human conflicts that have worked in other communities? " YES. MT. LEBANON!
This guy, who has never been to Mt. Lebanon now estimates that we have 750 deer. Mt. Lebanon is paying DeNicola $9000 to protect the identity of 11 private homes plus Greg Perri from Shady Lane, while subjecting us to four months of archery and more guns after that. All with our tax dollars and nothing from the 12 property owners who continue to benefit by receiving the meat, less deer feces, and less vegetation eaten from their delectable gardens - and yes poison ivy is quite appetizing to deer.
Elaine
If anybody is wondering how many days Tony DeNicola will be spending in Mt. Lebanon to earn what could be $9000 of taxpayer money, the answer is absolutely "ZERO." After a brief email exchange with Mr. McGill, he stated that:
ReplyDelete"We are paying him to coordinate and administer the program. This does not require him to physically be present in the municipality. He has already assisted with an update to the Frequently Asked Questions that appear on the website, exchanged emails and phone calls with me and I know he has done the same with the archers and the local volunteer program coordinator."
So in other words, we are paying Tony DeNicola $9000 for nothing more than a consultant fee to send a few emails and make a few phone calls from his home in Connecticut.
One has to question, did we really need the services of White Buffalo and Tony DeNicola with a price tag of $9000 of our money to coordinate and administer this program?
Nick M.