Arriving on the doorstep one day last week, in a box packed with ice,

was the severed head.

"It took quite a while to find somebody who’d send me one," Jason

Miller told me.

If you’ve been following events surrounding the coming deer slaughter

at Shawnee Mission Park, then you might have heard of Miller even

before last Friday’s gruesome display outside the Johnson County park

district offices.

Holding the deer head aloft, the 42-year-old Lenexa animal rights

activist read from a script he’d written, addressing his comments to

the park officials holed up inside.

"My name is Victoria," Miller said, speaking for the deer as its blood

dripped to the curb below. "If you move forward with your planned

slaughter, I will be the future face of Shawnee Mission Park."

Well, it sort of depends on how you view the coming cull. But there’s

no denying that Miller has become the face of the effort to prevent

the killing.

What began as one man’s effort to stop parks officials from

exterminating 300 of the 400 whitetails roaming in and around JoCo’s

premiere park has lately turned into something broader.

In July, Miller started Bite Club of KC, which he claims has 200 local

members. Dozens turn up at meetings and protests. There’s a Web site —

biteclubkc.wordpress.com — and enough money to rent a billboard near

downtown that screams "STOP THE SLAUGHTER. SAVE THE DEER!"

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