Starving Deer?

Councilman Russo stated the deer are starving. He has seen them. Is he a wildlife biologist? Agents of the ODNR have stated they have had no reports of starving wild deer in the state of Ohio. There are also locations in the US with healthy herds at population densities of more than 200 deer/square mile.

FACT: Deer metabolism is different from human metabolism. According to deer biologists, deer adjust their caloric intake by the season. In the fall they eat to put on weight, and in winter their metabolism adjusts to the diminished available food and they eat less. Even when food is abundant, a typical white-tail deer in northern latitudes will lose 20% of its body weight by spring. In other words: Deer get skinny in the winter. It has nothing to do with overpopulation.

Reference:


From article
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1733769

Ohio Deer Herd Healthier Than Ever


The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says the herd is healthier than ever. Mike Tonkavich is a biologist with O.D.N.R. and helps track and count deer.

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Anthony DeNicola of White Buffalo,Inc., was contracted by The City of Solon from 2005 - 2009 for both his biology degree and "sharpshooting skills".

In his summary report for 2005, his first year in Solon, he reported our herd as being healthy... prior to the first season of killing, when our numbers were approximately 1,000.

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Culling Facts

There are many assumptions surrounding "deer culling", people assume that more deer results in increased deer vehicle accidents (DVAs) and therefore the "solution" is to have less deer.

It is a FACT that killing deer makes the surviving herd stronger, increases their breeding rate so that more killing needs to be done to maintain the herd size.  This becomes an ongoing maintenance burden.

It is a FACT that unless you kill all the deer that some will remain to run in front of cars, so killing is ineffective in addressing DVAs.

It is a FACT that in the quest to improve DVA safety, that culling raises its own safety issues by discharging deadly weapons in highly populated urban environments.

It is a FACT that areas with far larger deer herds who couldn't possibly afford continuing killing have successfully deployed DVA deterrents that are far more effective, target ALL deer and are much cheaper than culling.

It is a FACT that decision makers in Solon are hunters and have no interest in these cheaper more effective non-lethal alternatives.

It is a FACT that the people Solon consulted (USDA Wildlife Services and ODNR/ODOW) derive the majority of their funding from Hunting interests and therefore have a conflict of interest.

Let's stick with the FACTS.

Culling/Killing is an expensive experiment that has failed, it is time to try something different.

Educate yourself about DVA deterrents, click here for the Main Web Site page and click the sidebar labels for Lethal, Non-Lethal, and DVA for other Blog posts on those topics.


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