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causes weight reduction at a time when fat reserves are needed to protect deer against increasingly cold temperatures and lessening food supplies.
(5) Heavy hunting pressure disrupts the normal movement patterns of deer--sometimes drastically. Deer are often forced into small, compact areas of safety where these areas exist. This often leads to overbrowsing, or if food supplies in these locations are inadequate or insufficient, the deer will become malnourished.
(6) Countless deer are wounded during hunting seasons. This is particularly true during bowhunting seasons. Wounded deer who are not tracked down and killed often die slow, lingering deaths during which time they eat little or nothing. Weakness resulting partly from hunger is often a secondary cause of death.
(7) Deer hunting breaks up family units. A four or five month old fawn, while capable of fending for itself, is still dependent upon its mother for direction and social stability. A fawn who loses its mother during hunting season is more susceptible to malnutrition, starvation, and stress-related ailments than a fawn whose mother lives through part or all of the winter. (Family disruption also occurs as a result of natural predation in a balanced ecosystem, but at a much slower rate than during hunting seasons when large numbers of deer are killed in a relatively short time.)
(8) State wildlife agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service often order wildlife 'managers" to kill natural predators such as wolves and coyotes or establish hunting and/or trapping seasons on these animals because they sometimes compete with hunters. With few natural predators to kill weak or malnourished deer there are more wintering deer than there would be in a well balanced ecosystem. Thus, there is more deer starvation.
The "starvation argument' is nothing more than an excuse to hunt deer --often with disastrous consequences for the deer, large predators, and natural lands where habitat is destructively manipulated. Hunting usually creates many more problems than it solves. The next time a hunter tells you that he is doing deer a favor by reducing starvation rates, tell him the facts!
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Coalition to Protect Refuge Wildlife
11 Lincoln Street Newburyport MA
was formed to protect the animals in Parker River National Wildlife Refuge MA by Carol Abarbanell The following is from their brochure
Bucks vs. Does
In order to effectively reduce deer population if necessary, breeding does must be killed. In two hunts, however, when deer populations were estimated to be at their highest levels, the Refuge not only made no attempt to regulate the sex of the deer to be killed, it encouraged the killing of bucks over does!
It is clear that the interests of the hunter are consistently favored over the welfare of the wildlife. So long as populations are intentionally manipulated to remain high, hunters will continue to have "surplus renewable resources" to "harvest" --the cycle will continue unchecked and deer will die needlessly.
The Myth of Deer Starvation
The Refuge has never specified impending deer starvation as a reason to hold a hunt. Even so, the "deer starvation argument, so often cited as justification for sport hunting, is used for its emotional impact on an unsuspecting public.
The argument is completely unscientific. In fact, deer hunting often
INCREASES the rate of deer malnutrition and starvation. Here's how:
Hunters prefer to kill large, healthy bucks. The resulting higher ratio of does to bucks induces abnormally high population productivity--more births, not fewer. Doe-only hunts, which would reduce the birth rate, are rarely sponsored.
Most hunters seek out and kill the larger bucks. Smaller and younger bucks mate with breeding does, resulting in smaller and weaker deer that are more susceptible to disease and starvation.
Because of the stress that results from their pursuit and harassment by hunters, deer who lack safe sanctuaries eat less than usual. This causes weight reduction at a time when fat reserves are needed to protect deer against increasingly cold temperatures and lessening food supplies. Stress is also a major factor in making deer more susceptible to disease.
Deer hunting breaks up family units. A fawn who loses its mother during hunting season is more susceptible to malnutrition, starvation, and stress-related ailments than a fawn whose mother lives through the winter.
The starvation argument is nothing more than an excuse to hunt deer. Hunting CREATES many more problems than it solves. The next time a hunter tells you that he is doing deer a favor by reducing starvation rates, tell him the facts!
It is not a given that all wildlife populations need managing by humans. Not only do many parks and refuges not hunt; they also see little or no need to "manipulate" their wildlife populations at all. The argument for wildlife management, euphemistically called "wildlife conservation," is often no more than a rationale by pro-hunting forces to justify their sport.
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Fact Sheet Prepared by Sierra Club W.I.N. Committee
Re Deer in Harriman State Park (NY) September 1982
The Truth About Hunting
For many years the American public has been led to believe that hunting is an effective "wildlife management" tool. It is true that hunting has been effective in managing our wildlife, especially deer, but for what purpose have the populations of these animals been managed?
About Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks
Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks are managed by the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission (PIPIC). The 52,000 square acres that make up these parks lie partly in New Jersey and partly in New York. The 10,000 acres that have been designated for this hunt lie within the boundaries of New York State and ultimate authority for the hunt came from the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC).
Population Estimates
DEC estimated the deer population in the parks last year at 3,000-3500. These estimates were based on the number of reported road kills on the theory that there is some direct correlation between the number of deer accidentally killed on the road and the size of the deer population. There are many reasons why deer may wander close to roadway and residential areas. The only reasonable way to estimate the number of deer in the parks is to do a population survey--which was never done.
DEC and PIPC Claim Deer Are Starving
When asked how many acres are needed to sustain a deer, the DEC responded that approximately 4 acres are needed per deer. They estimate the population at 3000 and with 52,000 acres, this would mean, even conservatively, one deer per 18 acres!! Yet we are told that these deer are over-populated and starving.
During hunting season last year, approximately 70 deer were "taken"
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and while the DEC reported the average weight of the deer was 50
pounds, they neglected to report that many of those "taken" were does
and fawns who showed no signs of starvation.
Starvation vs. Hunting
What about starvation? It sounds like a cruel death but the truth is that starvation is a selective killer. The first animals to fall to starvation are the old, weak and injured animals. With these animals eliminated from the herd, the fittest deer have a better chance to survive
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