Arlington Co. and its deer problem

[Anonymous]

Did you hear this, the county wants to pay people to shoot the deer. How is this ethical or safe, what will they do when a sharpshooter mistakenly shoots a child by accident?

https://wtop.com/arlington/2024/06/arlington-co-recommends-sharpshooters-to-reduce-deer-population-in-county-parks/

[Anonymous]

Oh please. We have to cull deer. They have no predators here. No one is going to accidentally shoot a child.

[Anonymous]

The library had a program and a book talk. Apparently some culling operations in yards is via nets and bolt guns. Book described the "eee eee eee" cries of fawns being killed. It's not painless.
See The Age of Deer pp 190-194.

I am not supportive of culling 40% of the deer.
But I encourage supporters to be clear just what means are planned. Just sharpshooter and head shots? Or....????

Not in my yard.

[Anonymous]

How many children have been killed in deer management programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The library had a program and a book talk. Apparently some culling operations in yards is via nets and bolt guns. Book described the "eee eee eee" cries of fawns being killed. It's not painless.
See The Age of Deer pp 190-194.

I am not supportive of culling 40% of the deer.
But I encourage supporters to be clear just what means are planned. Just sharpshooter and head shots? Or....????

Not in my yard.

You don't headshot a deer. The skull is quite thick and a small target

[Anonymous]

The park service has been culling deer in DC for years. Thank goodness. The deer are much more under control now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The library had a program and a book talk. Apparently some culling operations in yards is via nets and bolt guns. Book described the "eee eee eee" cries of fawns being killed. It's not painless.
See The Age of Deer pp 190-194.

I am not supportive of culling 40% of the deer.
But I encourage supporters to be clear just what means are planned. Just sharpshooter and head shots? Or....????

Not in my yard.

You don't headshot a deer. The skull is quite thick and a small target

Well how do they get the instant, painless kills Arlington says will happen? Or is that bull?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The library had a program and a book talk. Apparently some culling operations in yards is via nets and bolt guns. Book described the "eee eee eee" cries of fawns being killed. It's not painless.
See The Age of Deer pp 190-194.

I am not supportive of culling 40% of the deer.
But I encourage supporters to be clear just what means are planned. Just sharpshooter and head shots? Or....????

Not in my yard.

You don't headshot a deer. The skull is quite thick and a small target

Well how do they get the instant, painless kills Arlington says will happen? Or is that bull?

The original poster is conflating trapping deer with nets and using a bolt gun with "sharpshooters performing a headshot," no doubt to create confusion around the issue. If the deer is immobilized, then a bolt gun would be viable. If you are hunting with a gun as a "sharpshooter," you are not going to aim for a tiny target like the head. You aim for the heart/lungs and use a projectile with sufficient kinetic energy to send the deer into shock.

Arlington previously used a deer sterilization program that was roughly $1,000/deer.

[Anonymous]

And the sterilization program was a dismal failure. Look no one thinks you can kill large animals with no pain and we should do the best we can but some of them need to die. Do you think a lion is killing a gazelle without any pain?

[Anonymous]

NPS culls deer annually in Rock Creek Park in DC and MD. It’s a good program. I have come across 8-point bucks in my yard in DC. Nearly drove into a 12-point buck next to French Ambassadors residence in Kalorama. It’s crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And the sterilization program was a dismal failure. Look no one thinks you can kill large animals with no pain and we should do the best we can but some of them need to die. Do you think a lion is killing a gazelle without any pain?

A lion kills with a single bite to the spine, severing the spinal cord. It's pretty quick after the lion tackles the prey. House cats would do the same to their prey animals, but no one teaches them the technique.

[Anonymous]

This sounds like a waste of money, you can just add an extra week of bow hunting and let the rednecks handle it. Too many deer caught at once in one area can really throw off a herd. Also if you hire people to cull the population in only one area then the other herds nearby will just spread out naturally in a couple years. They travel several miles, especially the bucks. Also how long are they doing this for? One night only we take them all out? Who is going to process all that meat? Will they waste it? Sounds like the people making these rules never watched a deer herd in their life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a waste of money, you can just add an extra week of bow hunting and let the rednecks handle it. Too many deer caught at once in one area can really throw off a herd. Also if you hire people to cull the population in only one area then the other herds nearby will just spread out naturally in a couple years. They travel several miles, especially the bucks. Also how long are they doing this for? One night only we take them all out? Who is going to process all that meat? Will they waste it? Sounds like the people making these rules never watched a deer herd in their life.

All very good points! Arlington Co is full of ideas but rarely do they think them all the way through and then create another problem. This needs to be very carefully researched and the parties involved in making the decision need to thoroughly understand the downstream impact of their choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a waste of money, you can just add an extra week of bow hunting and let the rednecks handle it. Too many deer caught at once in one area can really throw off a herd. Also if you hire people to cull the population in only one area then the other herds nearby will just spread out naturally in a couple years. They travel several miles, especially the bucks. Also how long are they doing this for? One night only we take them all out? Who is going to process all that meat? Will they waste it? Sounds like the people making these rules never watched a deer herd in their life.

All very good points! Arlington Co is full of ideas but rarely do they think them all the way through and then create another problem. This needs to be very carefully researched and the parties involved in making the decision need to thoroughly understand the downstream impact of their choices.

Sounds like we need a couple million dollar government funded studies! Does anyone know of a nonprofit willing to do this work?

[Anonymous]

Hey I am the alleged conflate. The book referenced was one the County chose to highlight for a library discussion. That company did use sharpshooter and then the net method in yards.
Arlington apparently would use sharpshooter. But they do say painless, instantaneous kills. Sounds like blarney based on comments here.
I am not supportive but definitely am extremely unsupportive of amateurs doing it.
They do give numbers amounting to 40% of the deer.