Jared, thanks for having a pair big enough to post this! Too many high-profile hunters are a little leery to post up that they shoot a doe. Yet by shooting that doe instead of a small buck, you actually help the buck:doe ratio instead of hurt it. Good on you...
As I said on your FB post, there's some very old faulty thinking out there when it comes to harvesting does. People think we're raising cattle "and you can't shoot the mammas!", but cattle have virtually limitless "habitat" (it's called a haystack) but wild game is limited by the amount of natural habitat (that is mostly shrinking).
Some of the best mule deer hunting of yesteryear occurred under either-sex hunting rules. Now we force a segment of the hunters to shoot a buck under bucks-only regulations when many of them would be happy with a doe.
I've shot many does over my hunting career. Even this year, I was ready to shoot one last eve if things hadn't turned for the better. In SE Idaho, we have a lot of does right now and when a hard winter hits, the remaining bucks will have to compete with all those does for survival.
I'm not saying every mule deer herd can support doe harvest, but many can and should have doe harvest (lots of guys are surprised to find out our best mule deer state for herd size and antler size offers many doe tags in a lot of units- Colorado).
If the good biology says it's acceptable, I support it. When the herd is balanced with habitat, everything just works better- healthier fawns that are born on time, better buck:doe ratios, and even better antler growth.
Thanks for posting this!