Homosexual lobby strikes again

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To combat Lyme disease, Fairfax County is turning to a horse of different color. Make that a deer of a different color.

The county is using a fluorescent-pink pesticide dye to kill deer ticks - which can spread Lyme disease - as part of a $380,000 pilot study to see whether the pesticide works and whether the county should keep using it.

The county set up 20 feeding stations, each baited with corn to attract deer. To get to the food, deer must rub up against two paint rollers filled with the pesticide, killing their ticks and painting them a striking day-glo pink in the process, allowing researchers to identify and track treated deer.
Fairfax sees about 200 cases of Lyme disease a year, and cases across Virginia have more than doubled over the past several years, according to the county health department. The pink-deer program is the brainchild of the county's wildlife biologist, Vicky Monroe, who's spent the past three years trying to get county and state approval for a program she designed.

Sitting in the tiny brown trailer that serves as the county's wildlife services offices, surrounded by a slew of taxidermist-stuffed animals (including a buck and a massive black bear), she said she was inspired to launch the program after hearing of a similar initiative in Maryland.

Why paint the deer pink? It makes them easier to spot in the wild, Monroe said. She picked day-glo pink over the objections of her male colleagues, who favored a green dye instead.

"I needed a color that was unmistakable, that was not found in nature -- and I just embraced being a female biologist," she said, laughing.

The dye is non-toxic and won't harm the deer -- or any humans who consume venison from the marked deer. Still, residents should avoid direct contact with treated deer, Monroe said. The dye will fade after about four days.

The county is telling residents they shouldn't be alarmed if they see a pink deer -- or, for that matter, squirrels, raccoons or other critters covered in fluorescent dye. Instead, they should report the sighting online -- once the county sets up a website -- so researchers can track the animals.
The study will run until 2015.

"Deer are the public transit system for ticks," Monroe said. "We're trying to kill ticks, treat deer, and manage wildlife."



http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/virginia/2012/03/pink-deer-fight-lyme-disease-fairfax/410081

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