Another offshoot of the contemporary tendency to go overboard in our worship of “gentle wilderness” was that large sections of the Northeast became overrun by deer.

For a while, just about everyone was enchanted with the prospect of being able to look out their back door and occasionally get a fleeting glimpse of an antlered beauty.  But as the deer became more and more emboldened, homeowners eventually had to contend with whole herds of them invading their lawns and gardens, eating and otherwise destroying everything of beauty.   People began referring to them as "rats with hooves."

Deer used to shy away from people.  Hunters would go out into rural areas and never even see a buck, much less get a decent shot at one.

But in an era where it has become unthinkable for anyone to shoot Bambi, deer are emboldened enough to have become pestilential.