Because we humans have eliminated the wolves that kept the deer population in check in most states, deer do overpopulate, ruining forests by stripping bark from trees after they have eaten all the lower growth, and they end up starving, more vulnerable to ticks which then spread to companion animals and humans, and eventually can been seen dead and dying at the side of highways, particularly in winter. It is an awful, awful, heart-wrenching sight. Especially in some Eastern States, like Pennsylvania, the deer overpopulation has ruined forest ecosystems for other creatures, too, causing other species to suffer.

A humane, quick death if far preferable to slow, painful death by starvation, don't you think? I will never forget the skeletal starving deer we saw when I was a kid, licking salt from the roads in western New York state, and the carcasses of the ones who had just died and fell, near the edges of the woods. Horrific.