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Community Corner

Lyme Disease - Is Redding, CT Headed in the Wrong Direction ?





                           Lyme Disease - Is Redding, CT Headed in the Wrong Direction ?
      Is the town of Redding, CT  heading in the wrong direction for lowering Lyme disease ?  When one looks at the last four years and see`s the results of Redding`s, " Scorched  Earth " policy to Lyme prevention and cure, one can only deduce thatRedding,CT is headed in the wrong direction.  After reviewing the results for the last four years,  provided by both the Connecticut Health Department and the CT DEEP one see`s that the deer population is now down 60% + and that Lyme disease, reported cases in Redding are up 61.5%.  In 2010 the Redding, CT reported Lyme cases were  8  and in 2013 they are now  13.      What happened to all the " Wildlife Experts " that said, " Less Deer = Less Lyme " ?   After reviewing the latest numbers one see`s that removing deer will not guarantee the lowering of Lyme. In fact many believe that there is no correlation with the removal of deer and lowering of Lyme.  When does Redding stop the destruction of deer in their town, when there are no more deer ?  Currently the only people benefiting from the removal of Redding's deer are the people that just what deer gone for one reason or another.     There are actually more scientific cases against the removal of deer to lower Lyme disease than are case`s for it.  Every case that is promoting the removal of deer would seem to have a monitory agenda behind it along with their inflated deer counts to support their theory.     Westport, CT has seen a dramatic decline with 57 Lyme disease cases in 2005 to only 6 cases in 2012. Westport has a stabile deer population of approximate 600 deer ( 26.8 dpsm ) per a recent Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) aerial survey conducted in 2012, and the town does not allow hunting. Westport has used non-lethal solutions with public awareness to combat Lyme and it looks to be working. Deer represent less than 1% of the total wildlife population in Fairfield County. Deer are the most visible, but you can`t expect to change an ecosystem with a percentage that low.  Conservationists believe that deer play an important part in our ecosystem and are only one part of the dozens of wildlife, animals and birds that frequent Westport, Redding and all of Fairfield County.      The " Wildlife Experts " tell us to look at Mumford Cove, CT;  Mumford cove is not a proven fact !  Mumford Cove is little more than a pre-determined outcome to a test study.  At only 213 acres it is less than 1/3 square mile with a deer population of approximately 4-7 deer. This represents hardly a proven fact of tick reduction with their tick reports up 2.4 times or 240% from 2011 to 2012.       Munford cove is made up of million dollar homes and the residents for the most part use contract labor to maintain their properties. These workers report Lyme cases to the Groton area medical clinics, which in turn are classified as Groton Lyme cases within Connecticut and for 2013 are now at 
     The town of Redding, CAES and FCDMA will say anything to keep killing deer !  Even going the wrong way against the latest  CT Health Department and CT DEEP numbers that were brought to their attention and show no correlation between removing deer and lowering of Lyme.  Like a group of lemmings, to our ultimate demise.     With Redding scheduled to destroy another 25 deer in 2015 for the ITM study, when does the public finally say;  after four years look at the numbers enough is enough, We are going in the worn direction !

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