MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS -- People in Middleburg Heights are searching for a deer that is in need of help. The deer has an arrow stuck in its neck. Someone shot the deer but the animal did not die.
It's been seen in a Middleburg Heights neighborhood with the arrow still stuck. The sight has upset neighbors. People in the area say they feed the deer and say they are like pets to them. Police have called animal control officers to help locate the injured deer.
First of all most of the content came from Granville a small rural town, add a new front page, throw in some Solon graphs and viola, you have a comprehensive custom Solon plan. Kraus put this on the record at the last Safety Meeting.
And if copying from Granville weren't enough, they ask ODOW and USDA WS to edit the plan. These two organizations depend on lethal methods for their budget, hardly an unbiased source.
But where's the meat? No specifics, no implementation, no costs, no action plan. What is council "deciding"? They'll be "adopting" an idea, leaving the implementation to Stanek, an avid hunter.
Stanek was asked last month to obtain a cost for someone else (USDA WS) implementing the whole plan. Stanek did not do that. Russo reminded him of that request.
Kraus tried to remove bow hunting, Russo objected and wanted to recommend the "plan" to council.
Kraus asked about competitors to White Buffalo, Stanek said that there aren't many competitors, not with their "credentials" who would do it as "professionally". But then Stanek admitted that if we were to consider White Buffalo, we may want to "exclude an individual", seeming to admit that the city has a problem with someone from White Buffalo.
Russo was concerned that they act in time to get this done this year.
The first action would be "public education" and we've started that. I think that is the "deer damage" form and MetroParks link on the city's home page.
Next would be to start bow hunting late Sept 2011.
Culling effort would begin early 2012.
At 58 min in, Russo put his foot down to discourage "cherry picking" and pushed for sending the "plan" to council tonight. Kraus made a last ditch effort to not "recommend". Russo made the motion to recommend. Kraus clarified that he voted NO because of bow hunting.
For the original plan, twice updated since, see this article.
At the last safety meeting where the plan was unveiled, the "Deer Park" was removed because if we feed deer, ODOW will not grant a license to kill deer and Russo was insistent about needing to kill deer.
At this meeting, the following changes were made:
On pg 6, A disclaimer that if there are "too many" deer they'll eat anything, so even deer resistant planting could be deemed ineffective. Reinforcing the idea that killing is required.
On pg 9, #2, Fixed a typo saying that a method was impracticable.
Emphasized that "Trap and Euthinize" (Captive Bolt) requires an ODOW permit and that the city must be involved and that residents can't directly approach the ODOW to get a permit.
Both Peters of the ODOW and USDA WS suggested that we are "over regulating" bow hunting. Stanek believes this is "absolutely necessary" in the beginning because of citizens concerns. This regulation can be viewed as safe guards to the residents. Then in the next breath, Stanek contradicted himself and got the committee to pass an amendment adding that we would "follow ODOW standards in use in neighboring communities" (who don't "over regulate" to protect their citizens).
The meeting video can be found here, the deer topic runs from 37 min to 1 hour 1 min.
The Administration promised a "Comprehensive Deer Management Plan" in May. Its May and we saw the plan. Its unimpressive, especially when you consider that the only thing unique about it is a few graphs.
Councilman Kraus touched a nerve when he called Stanek on the fact that it seems word for word the same as the "Granville Plan", a small rural community nothing like Solon. When challenged if comparing their needs to ours is "Apples to Apples", Stanek bristled stating its "Apples to Apples to Apples to Apples".
The plan predictably mentioned everything, but said nothing. It mentions many non-lethal options, then promptly dismisses them as "ineffective". They did say they'd "continue to maintain" the Strieter Lites which inexplicably have 500 ft gaps to reduce their effectiveness.
The one item they definitely wanted removed though is the "deer park" idea, it is number "5 Supplemental Feedings" on page 9 of the draft plan. The ODOW would not issue a nuisance permit to allow killing deer to a city who was feeding deer. This is a deal breaker for the city, they won't do something that will prevent lethal options.
In the lethal department, everything was on the table, Captive Bolt, Bow Hunting, and Sharpshooting, A question was raised about lethal options cheaper than Sharpshooting, one would think this would have been done, but Stanek said he'd look into it.
Captive Bolt, or as they refer to it, "Traps and Euthanasia", is among the cruelest methods, despite its nice name. The deer is caught in a trap, struggles to get free and then is shot with a bolt in the head. The plan mentions that our Animal Warden could do this, he runs a side business in Pepperpike doing it.
Bow Hunting was raised again and it appears the same draft plan was added to the end of this new plan. Our former police chief and our former deer sharpshooter (White Buffalo) both criticized this option. Russo said it won't be people "running around with bows and arrows", actually crossbows are more deadly. It was also implied that large areas would be used, but Stanek said that was unnecessary when he discussed this a few months ago.
The implication was that this deadly activity would be on large remote lands. The last program had nearly 70 kill sites, one may be near you!
The city's target deer population is 206-309, a new all time low that will require killing over 700 deer the first year,
The city mentioned other local communities with deer killing plans including ---
A copy of the plan is on Solon's web site here. The meeting video is here, Deer Mgt starts at 28 min in. The issue is covered as Deer Management under the Residents tab here.
After five years, $807,325.55 dollars – not including legal fees -- and the massacre of nearly 1,600 deer, Solon has witnessed rebounding deer populations, as predicted. Solon leaders’ poorly conceived, shortsighted ―management‖ plan failed.
Despite this failure, Solon seems to be ready to repeat this costly mistake.
Its time for Solon to take the lead and consider 21st century non-lethal solutions.
Let's put this issue on the ballot for a vote, join us on Saturday, April 16th, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Solon Recreation Center, 35000 Portz Parkway, Solon, OH 44139.
Ten dead deer were found in a Mentor, Ohio neighborhood. The Animal warden was extolling the virtues of hunting, they follow rules, they eat the meat, these people shot bullets and arrows in a dense neighborhood where residents fed the deer. But what's the difference between poaching, hunting by bow, or paid sharpshooters? Not much really, they're all engaged in unnecessary killing for the thrill of it.
Can we expect deer management discussions in Mentor, they're talking about DVA's here. Will Mentor follow Solon's lead into the endless killing fields or will they be a leader and look at DVA deterrents of the 21st century? For everyone's sake let's hope they don't repeat our failed experiment.
But at least one Mentor resident admits the ODOW keep the herd size high for hunters and are the cause of DVAs. See his comment here.
“ I haven’t seen the level of deer in our community either now or in the last few years,” Kraus said at last week’s Safety Committee meeting. “And I don’t see the level of accidents that we had, along roadways like Cannon, SOM (Center) and (U.S.) 422. ”
[No public mention was made that Cannon and SOM have Strieter Lites installed, a DVA deterrent, Kraus has made some public and private statements that state he believes they are effective]
Be sure to attend the March Safety Meeting, Wed at City Hall at 6pm. The USDA Wildlife Services will be there tonight along with the ODOW (Ohio Dept of Wildlife), both whom support wildlife slaughter and hunting. Why are we talking about solutions rather than the "problem"? Starting with the problem will lead to non-lethal solutions that they are not interested in...
True to their reputation, ODOW presented lethal options and glossed over non-lethal options.
The meeting video is here, Councilman Kraus was late so the committee recessed and reconvened at 49 min, Jim Stanek spoke first. At 52 min Scott Peters of ODOW made a powerpoint presentation. At 1 hr 7 min Russo started a question period with Scott Peters. At 1 hr 22 min a speaker from USDA Wildlife Services spoke, he wasn't that prepared and asked "What are your goals" and got no answers. This Federal official said "He's here to help", which is a not so funny joke. He said he could help the city, for a fee. Since he got no answers, he called Scott back up. At 1 hr 42 min, Russo allowed public comment to "ask questions" for a max of 30 min, this was an unexpected surprise, we didn't know he'd let the public question them. At 2 hr 2 min, Russo brought the discussion back to deer counting, ranging from $5-30K, that the committee approved. At 2 hr 11 min the topic was complete and they moved on to other business.
