Some things never change: It is [insert name of month], so residents of [insert name of borough or township] must be worried about the deer population.

The ever-increasing numbers of deer roaming the municipality are [adorable/deadly]. They [look cute/destroy expensive landscaping/endanger human life]. Some homeowners want to [feed/kill] the deer, while their neighbors [oppose/loudly oppose] this course of action.

Municipal meetings often feature [heated arguments/lectures on property rights/lectures on speciesism] when the deer problem comes up.

Ross is the latest scene of this perennial conflict. The conflict is, at bottom, between sentimentality and rationality. Despite this irreconcilable difference that divides factions of residents and, apparently, factions of commissioners, Ross appears headed for solutions already used -- so far, with great success -- in Peters, Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair.

Ross' only mistake is that it -- pardon the expression -- jumped the gun.

In response to residents' complaints about deer-wrought destruction, a Ross commissioner recently proposed an ordinance that would forbid residents from feeding deer on their own land.

At commissioners' meetings and in letters to the editor, residents spoke out against the feeding ban. Some cited private property rights, expressing dismay that council would interfere with property owners' peaceful pursuits. Others invoked animal rights, announcing that they not only share their land with all living creatures but they will actively oppose any official program to "murder" these creatures on anyone else's land.

The ordinance failed two weeks ago on a tie vote, but the issue, like dead deer along McKnight Road, will undoubtedly appear again and again. Whether some residents like it or not, Ross is probably headed for a special government-sanctioned culling.

Peters is the most recent township to follow this path. Officials moved methodically, obtaining a U.S. Department of Agriculture study to determine the size of the problem. Working at night with infrared lenses and cameras, USDA investigators established Peters' deer population density at 69 per square mile, for a total of 1,400 -- when the ideal total would be about 400.

It's been years since I lived in Ross, but my guess is the township can match Peters' numbers. I remember a neighbor training his camera on the hillside directly behind his home and capturing more than 25 deer in a single frame -- scarcely 2,000 feet from the McKnight maelstrom.

In Peters, the path to consensus involved various committees, boards and a survey of residents. Their solution: carefully monitored bow hunting now under way in public parks and on other township properties. "We've had virtually no opposition," said township Manager Michael Silvestri.

With far smaller deer populations, Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair have used sharpshooters for several years. In 2007, Mt. Lebanon paid $20,000 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services for the sharpshooters' nighttime work. In early 2008, according to a report available on the township's Web site, they culled 145 deer, providing approximately 4,480 pounds of venison to county food banks.

The benefit of providing meat to needy families is an important public selling point that beleaguered commissioners in Ross and elsewhere should emulate.

They also should note an important precaution taken in Mt. Lebanon: Although police are notified a few hours before a night's culling begins, residents are not notified to prevent any interference from groups that oppose the program. Who knows what public safety nightmare could arise if protesters knew when and where the culling was taking place?

The idea that the species homo sapiens somehow has less right to occupy the earth than the whitetail deer or any other furry, big-eyed mammal is tiresome and potentially dangerous. Though our sprawling suburbs do use land that the deer and their natural predators once patrolled alone, there's plenty of land for all of us. (I'd suggest that the deer need to be reasonable and move over a bit, but humor is wasted on zealots.)

In fact, rather than forcing deer out, we're making it possible for them to breed and survive in much greater numbers than they would in the wild because our beautiful suburban landscapes are an all-you-can-eat buffet. We green-loving homeowners are interfering with brutal Darwinian reality.

Savvy officials can work their way around opponents of culling, and they'll undoubtedly find plenty of residents eager to cooperate. The USDA says the 150-plus private property owners who signed consent forms allowing sharpshooters on their property in Mt. Lebanon were "critical to the success of this culling program" since most of the deer were killed on private land.

Enterprising residents in Peters asked whether they could request hunting on their properties, too. Ross residents eventually can be given the same kind of choice.

The clash of human civilization with lesser species is inevitable, but it need not involve a car crash, maimed animals or loss of human life. A democratic and far more humane solution is possible -- one that allows salt licks for those so inclined.