back to previous page-

From: Marion Stark <mstark@fund.org>
To: civitas@linkny.com <civitas@linkny.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 3:38 PM
Subject: deer dec --sent fall 2000

To: NYS DEC Commissioner Cahill and John Major:

On behalf of the Fund for Animals' 20,000 NYS members we request that the New York DEC's Bureau of Wildlife (BOW) "deer management" program as it currently exists be replaced with one that harmonizes and serves the best interest of the deer themselves and the general public. Deliberately increasing populations of deer and providing deer as living targets for recreation is unethical, dangerous and should stop.

Active recruitment of women and children to join the ranks of hunters is not an appropriate or popular outreach by a state agency.  Heralding deer hunting as a means to stop deer overpopulation and deer car accidents is disingenuous and promoting these myths should cease.  Current deer management techniques, i.e. hunting, which provide more deer for  hunters and more license money for state agencies result in high deer populations and death, injuries and property damage to people.

With the continued construction of new housing developments for humans and the destruction of wildlife habitat, people and wildlife are competing for the same spot of earth and meeting each other more and more in both their own backyards. The public needs BOW to launch an intensive education program informing them on the non-lethal ways to live together harmoniously. BOW's constant focus on killing wildlife detracts, time, energy and money from this necessary work at hand. BOW continues to ignore the 96% of the public who do not kill wildlife and whose moneyfunds killing programs ( i.e. ring necked pheasants). The drastic decline of hunting
>activity demonstrates the lack of interest in hunting and illuminates BOW's "stuck in the Stone Age" policy which is directly linked to the BOW's interest in selling licenses. Other means of financial support can be found and in fact, already have. Millions of dollars of general tax money have been budgeted by the NYS Legislature and the Governor into the BOW Conservation Fund which for years has been touted erroneously as using only sportsmen license fee monies. The public is largely no longer interested in killing wildlife but, rather, observing wild creatures. With no valid biological rationale to continue killing  BOW, as a public service agency, should follow the public's lead.

While a recent Associated Press article noted a DEC official as stating
that non-hunter input is sought on this issue, we have learned from other attendees of hearings that the only input welcomed is that the BOW answer to more deer or less deer is always the killing of deer ( i.e. if more deer are desired, more males are killed after the females have become pregnant , leaving abundant food and habitat for the pregnant females to remain well fed, healthy and able to deliver; if less deer are desired, more females are killed in order to reduce the birthrate.) Ideas that do not relate to killing deer are not translated into programs.

Yet again, The Fund for Animals strongly requests that (1) immunocontraceptive research  be advocated by BOW rather than dismissed out of hand as unfeasible due to pro hunting policies (2) guidelines should be published for the public about landscaping with deer resistant plants, fencing, and (3) roadside reflectors to increase safety on the roads should be a priority.  Even BOW's own literature, staff comments as well as other literature contradict its own claims about the need for hunting.

BOW (DEC) has deliberately created High Levels of Deer  "A directive came down calling for more deer so that the division could sell more hunting licenses " Charles Severinghaus, deer manager, 40 years with NYS
Division of Fish and Wildlife. "Deer Hunting: A Dying Tradition?" by Laura Ten Eyck " (Animals"1995)

"Following the 1993 harvest it was obvious populations were beginning to
decline. 1994 female harvests were reduced by 35% and 1995 harvest will be reduced even more". (DEC  1995)

"We will attempt to increase the number of deer until we experience high
incidences of deer-car collisions, depredation of agricultural crops becomes intolerable..."  --Terry Moore, NYS Regional Wildlife Manager

Hunting Increases Deer Populations
A scientific study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management concluded that "Productivity was higher on hunted than on nonhunted sites. " The percentage of does giving birth to twins was higher on the hunted areas. (Andreas Richter, Ronald Labisky." Reproductive Dynamics Among Disjunct White-Tailed Deer Herds in Florida" )

The Environment Controls Deer Levels
When deer experience a scarcity of food .."reproductive rates may suffer
significantly". DEC 1995. Embryos may fail to develop completely, consequently fawns are simply not born..

Archery Does not Decrease Deer Herds on Mainlands
Even though BOW encourages the use of bow and arrow in suburbs, its own study concludes that it would take on an island between 100 and 200
archers per square mile per day to achieve a "satisfactory deer harvest". Similar effectiveness would not be expected , however, on a mainland area". (Severinghaus, C. W, Wildlife Biologist,NYS Conservation Dept.  "Effectiveness of Archery In Controlling Deer: >Abundance On the Howland Island Game Management Area".

Hunting Results in Human Deaths, Injuries and Financial Loss
Erie Insurance( Pa.) reveals that deer car accident claims rise five fold on the first day of hunting season. National Safety Council states the average cost of a car accident resulting in one death is $980,000-, a disabling injury per person - $35,000- and property damage -$6,400. (1998)

Even DEC admits that in " ..some areas, even hunters have not been able to alleviate all the problems deer cause to motorists..." .  NYS DEC, Fur, Fin and Feather Facts" 3/17/2000). - Marion Stark,   Fund for Animals

Back to previous article   
Back to beginning of deer population determinants