I normally wouldn’t even write about the crushingly sad story of the 75 year old Ohio woman who beat a fawn to death with a shovel in her garden, but something about the neighbors protective response gave me just enough ire to over come the head-shaking and actually type. Lets just assume that the woman’s actions can be explained by some form of dementia, but every person in her neighborhood could not be suffering the same degree of alzheimer’s. Obviously those neighbors saw or heard something of the thwacking assault and clearly did nothing — not even call over the back of the fence to ask what the hell she was doing. Apparently the fawn-killer in question has already retained an attorney to protect her from what could be, at its most severe, a 1000 fine.
1000 dollars to kill a fawn? It’s a bargain really. It was this quote that dropped my jaw,
“She shoved it on the shoulder and the deer fell over,” said another neighbor, who has spoken to Richardson and did not want to give her name.”You have to understand where she comes from – she’s a country girl.”
A country girl! I guess out there in the country they must stand around in rings whacking fawns with shovels on Saturday nights when traffic is slow. It’s not like “country folk” would know better, or have any greater understanding of nature. No thought that being a country girl might teach you that a fawn isn’t weaned yet so it isn’t even going to eat your precious tulips, or that whacking it in the head with a shovel might upset your neighbors or be considered cruel, (or you know, INSANE). Certainly no thought that finding a fawn in your ferns is a sign of divine blessing from the natural world, and the gravest compliment on your gardening care.
Sigh.
This story is so sad. If the woman was truly afraid it even makes it sadder. What it should make us ask is why are we doing such a bad job as a society of teaching each other how to live with the natural world? What a sorrowful testimony on the state of wildlife in Ohio to think that the presence of bambi could terrify an old woman. She was ten when Bambi came out, by the way. It’s impossible that she didn’t see it. Unlikely that she didn’t cry.
