Dear Editor,

It’s time I address the 2012 deer cull in the Windermere Valley, and the life and loss of my husband, who’s better known to some and referred to in the media as the contractor, Larry Mullikin.

We held our silence through the requested interviews, the barrage of Facebook character assassinations made against him, as well as the hurtful Jeers some felt the need to put into print.

Like the rest of you, we too received the Deer Questionnaire some time back. When it arrived I put it on the top of my fridge and thought I’d take a look, and maybe fill it out later. After reading through it, I thought there must be a better way to deal with our local deer. I threw the questionnaire away.

As time went on, we realized the deer cull was going to be a definite in our valley. After, and only after he exhausted any and all other possible options of eradication of these deer, (and going through the proper channels, I might add) I said to him, “If a cull is really going to happen here, then in my opinion there are two men that I know of that could carry it out as quickly, cleanly, and humanely as possible”. Those two men happen to be Larry and his close friend.

Was it for the money, you ask? Well, money is what pays the bills, but it was far more than that. It was because of my husband’s love and respect for nature. He lived for it and always has. But also, because it was a dirty job. There was nothing pretty about it, and when there’s a dirty job to do; you want the best, because you know they will do their best. To me, that was the two of them, hands down.

Larry was a man who always put human life before all other. He put forward your life, your children’s lives, not to mention your pet’s lives. He was the kind of man who would and could put an animal down if need be. When I asked him if it hurt him at all, he said “Yes, but I try not to think about it,” and that it would hurt more if it was someone’s child laying there dead or injured.

I was proud to hear that, because he truly was a man’s man, a man who could put his emotions aside for the safety of our community. These certainly are a couple of guys I would want in my corner had the world actually suffered a disaster as predicted last December 21, 2012.

Larry gave more to this world and to the people in it, than he had ever taken or received. We have lost a wonderful man and a great human being to a terrible disease.

 

Contributed by

The “contractor’s” wife

Tammy Miller-Mullikin

Invermere