You've been lied to as a child. All those little bambi's are full-grown by the time hunting season (Fall) comes around. If you don't believe it, consider this: the yearlings usually breed their first Fall and bear young in the Spring. Besides, most areas restrict doe hunting, except where deer are overrunning everything to the point of being pests. Loss of habitat is not much of a problem, either, whitetail and blacktail dear both live in most suburban areas. Man is the whitetail's natural predator here on the East Coast, due to the absence of the Wolf and the Cougar. There are more Whitetail dear on the East Coast currently then in Colonial times.
Hold on to your seat. The bumper sticker is wrong. Animals are not kind to dumb people. They will kick you, bite you, sting you, spray you, and sometimes even eat you, if they can catch you and hold you down long enough. Predators don't adopt each other's young. They eat them. Those after-school specials with the dippy music are misleading. The rabbit doesn't usually get away from the fox. The fox eats the rabbit. The rabbit survives by breeding. A lot.
Keep holding on to your seat. The vast majority of conservation dollars comes from Sportsmen (and women), that's Hunters and Fisherman, those who have the highest stake in our Nation's natural resources. At our urging, the Pittman-Robertson act was passed by Congress, putting the burden of conservation support on us. Federal taxes on sporting goods, collected at the manufacturing/wholesale level, and Federal stamps and State and Local Licenses administered under P-R, account for more the half a Billion dollars a year in conservation funds. All of the Sierra clubs and anti-hunting groups combined do not even approach this figure.
The media is still lying to you. Your average hunter is not a guy named Bubba who drives an ancient pickup truck. It's your next door neighbor, a computer programmer, businessman, accountant, scientist, or lawyer. He or she hunts, not just for the sport, but to fill a necessary niche in the ecology. Unhunted deer follow a three year pattern. Population rises until it peaks and exhausts winter food. A massive starvation happens that Winter, and starving deer are seen wondering into urban areas looking for food. Hunted deer maintain an even population base year after year. Unless the wolf pack, cougar and Native American hunters are reintroduced on the East Coast, state game management will turn to the hunter to maintain the balance of nature.
What is your best chance to get killed by wildlife? Being bit by a snake? A rare encounter with a Black Bear? A rabid racoon bite? Nope. It's hitting a whitetail deer while driving. As suburbanization continues, more and more deer are found on our roads, dazzled by headlights and miscalculating the unnatural speed of our vehicles. Suburban hunting, typically with bow & arrow or short-range shotgun where appropriate, is the most practical (and revenue-generating) way to minimize driver risk while maintaining reasonable numbers of deer.
Whitetail Deer population on the East Coast of the US declined from Colonial times until the mid 1930's, due to human population growth, poor game and land management, and poaching. Since then, population has recovered and is now at a 250 year high. State and federal conservation programs funded by the P-R Act and local licensing fees are the reason. Now, states are expanding seasons, issuing doe permits, introducing bow hunting in areas near populated regions, whatever they can do to manage this huge number of deer.
Deer with an unnatural trust of humans are more likely to become road kill, are more likely to eat your garden, and more likely to get sick from industrial and consumer chemical waste. Being hunted instills deer with a natural caution, and promotes survival of the most intelligent and cautious. As an omnivore (like the Bear), humans are natural predators of deer.
I'm so distraught I want to go home.