Deer Head On Pole In Yard Stirs Debate

[The Straight Story]

Deer Head On Pole In Yard Stirs Debate

POSTED: 5:28 pm EDT April 23, 2006

HOLLY TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A deer trophy mounted in a Michigan front yard is turning heads all around town.

At first, some neighbors thought the deer head was stuck on a pole as a joke or to announce a party. But now that it's apparently there to stay, they're complaining to officials in Holly Township, northwest of Detroit.

The 24-year-old owner of the deer head said he's amused by some of his neighbors' reactions to the head.

"I think it's sweet," he said, adding that he plans to keep the lawn oddity in place "forever."

One neighbor has asked township officials to demand its removal.

http://www.local6.com/news/8938247/detail.html

[Mr_Spock]

1. Why?

Some folks just love attention.

[TomInTib]

2. Wonder if the same folk(s) protested "Billy Bass"?

It's those eggs hanging from trees that bug me.

[Robeson]

3. "I think it's sweet".....

...so to kill the deer, and place its decapitated head on a pole, is sweet?

I guess he and I would have different definitions of sweet.

[JVS]

6. Probably

I think he's using the sweet=totally cool, awesome, killer!, bitchin! definition, while maybe you're thinking of it in the "Awwww, that's so precious" manner

[Robeson]

8. Yeah, I think you're right. At least, I'm hoping you're right.

[Fenris]

4. adding that he plans to keep the lawn oddity in place "forever."

That sound you hear is property values plummeting.

[justice1]

5. This is begging for a "Lord of the Flies" joke.

[JVS]

7. These idiots with their councils and committees

Don't they know that if they had stayed quiet about it some teenager would have stolen it without any hubbub. This is the kind of thing that teenagers live for, but now that they opened their big yaps, it will be harder for the kids to achieve their goal.

[jpgray]

9. Shut up, I've got the conch.

[SofaKingLiberal]

11. the conch doesn't count

on this end of the island.

:P

[SofaKingLiberal]

10. .

[China_cat]

12. I don't know if it's still there but I wonder how

those folks would have reacted to the house in Berkeley that had a warthog head over the front door.

[jukes]

13. if he was my naybor

i might put his head on the pole instead. gruesome, sick fuck.

[Dangerously Amused]

14. It may be a clever use of irony.

That was the first thing I thought of. In that case it is something that I - an animal rights lovin', trophy huntin' hatin' person, might do (if I were somehow to come across a taxidermied animal head). Animal corpses are all good when they're hanging in a restaurant or bar or on somebody's living room wall, right? So why are they bad when hung in their natural (outdoors) environment? Why do we accept them when some guy hangs them on a wall as a tribute to his penis/offering to the penis gods, but not accept them when they're "just" an animal head on a stick?

Does it make us uncomfortable to see the spoils of a hunt for what they really are - the corpses of once-living, beautiful creatures - instead of all prettied up and fake, like a child's stuffed animal? Does it make us examine societal attitudes toward hunting? Better yet, does it make us question the motivation, judgment and integrity of trophy hunters? If so, maybe the kid is onto something, and he's a-okay in my book.