Practically anyone with a lawn in the U.S. is aware that domestic deer populations have been skyrocketing. They're lovely creatures, to be sure, but they're responsible for more human deaths in America every year than any other animal – owing to both the Lyme disease they carry and the car collisions they suffer. In a fiesty New York Times column yesterday, Nicholas Kristof advised readers to help control deer populations the old-fashioned way—with rifles.

Sound crazy? Well consider this: The town of Greenwich, Connecticut shelled out close to $50,000 this year to eliminate 80 deer from its backyards, and another $8000 for deer birth control (yes, such a thing exists).

Studies show that deer kill roughly 150 people a year in U.S. auto collisions. Of course, it could be argued the other way around: The deer aren’t to blame, but rather suburban sprawl, as human settlement encroaches on deer habitat. Still, says Kristof (generally known to be a humane sort of fellow), there's no getting around the fact that in a “typical year, an American is less likely to be killed by Osama bin Laden than by Bambi.”

Photo credit: www.nhptv.org