In 1989, a leader of the national Fund for Animals, which joined the local protest, said protesters were horrified to find the head of a newly killed fawn near a school where they had held a vigil.
He called it "a Godfather-style tactic designed to intimidate." A hunter responded, "I wouldn't put it past the [protesters] to have planted it there."
At Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County, the battle over the hunt has taken place not only in the woods but in the courts, where deer hunt opponents tried legally, but unsuccessfully, to stop a hunt in 1983.
Nearly a decade later, feelings were just as intense.
A hunter walked up to Ridley demonstrators in January, 1992, and yelled: "I hope you're all vegetarians. I hope you're not wearing leather shoes."
"Murderer," the protesters replied.
Things were more genteel in well-heeled Lower Merion.
Neighbors complained deer were eating their expensive ornamentals and the township announced plans to apply for a special state permit allowing sharpshooters to hunt the offending animals.
The plan was called off in 1995, after an outcry by opponents. Instead, the township provided homeowners with information on licensed archery groups they could invite onto their property to hunt the deer with bows and arrows - and shrubs deer find least tasty.
Protests also have been held over hunts on federal property.
They included a bow-and-arrow hunt in 1990 at the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster. Officials said deer were so thick there they wandered onto runways - where one was hit by a plane.
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