DWR Snipers thin Bountiful Herd

[derekp1999]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13664515
Some Bountiful residents opposed to city-backed deer shootings
December 14th, 2010 @ 9:41pm
By Amanda Butterfield

BOUNTIFUL -- Bountiful city leaders say they have a deer problem and are thinning the herd with the help of a sharpshooter. But some residents are not happy about deer being gunned down in their neighborhoods.

Bountiful city has teamed up with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to get permission from residents to shoot deer in their yards. It's all to control the population, but some think there are better ways to do it.
"With children around, it just doesn't seem safe. What if there is an accident? All this over a deer doesn't seem right." -Christy Reed

"The population is creating a lot of problems," said city councilman Tom Toleman.

Resident Elden Hollingsworth built a tall fence to keep the deer out of his garden and grapes, but the animals still find a way to get into his yard.

"You have to be real careful when you drive, because if there is one, there are usually four or five right behind it," he said. "Then I don't have any juice or jam to make."

Toleman says the deer are attracted to yards for the food many of them provide.

"We have homes and gardens, so Bambi came down and said, ‘wow, look at all this good food,'" he said.

Toleman says that's why the deer don't migrate back to the mountains -- they are reproducing and living in the foothills and aren't in any condition to be relocated to the wilderness.

"They are domesticated," he said.

But a group of Bountiful residents protested the city council's meeting Tuesday night, suggesting non-lethal methods should be used to decrease the deer population. They expressed strong disdain at the idea of a government sharpshooter with a suppressed .22 calibur rifle aiming to kill in their neighborhoods.

"With children around, it just doesn't seem safe," said resident Christy Reed. "What if there is an accident? All this over a deer doesn't seem right."

Officials with Bountiful city and DWR have been culling deer for the past two months or so, according to Toleman. In January they will decide if they need to continue.

Harvested deer will be donated to local food banks and shelters in cooperation with the Bountiful Community Food Pantry and the Utah Chapter of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Homeless.

Not sure if I'd be thrilled with a guy running around my neighborhood with a gun (I have three little ones).

[camodup]

Theres alot of deer running around our neighborhood, so lets kill them all!
Whens PETA gonna step in?

[sewing]

It sounds like they are being responsible. I don't think it's a bad idea. How do I get on that team?

22? Where do they shoot them? In the temple or the eye?

[sneekeepete]

"Toleman says that's why the deer don't migrate back to the mountains -- they are reproducing and living in the foothills and aren't in any condition to be relocated to the wilderness.

"They are domesticated," he said."

That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. They are just too lazy to transplant them is the problem. If they wanted to do the best thing for Utah's deer herds and moving them in the winter is such a problem then do it in Late summer right before Archery hunt. It shouldn't be too hard to capture them if they never leave the foothills.

[sneekeepete]

And for the people who chose to live in their winter range I say deal with them or move it was your choice to live there.

[Tugg]

At a cost average of $600 per deer and an estimated mortality rate of 100% over approximately 3 yrs. transplants on mule deer are seldom, if ever recommended by biologists and state game agencies.

Imprinting on deer as fawns dictates their feed and water sources, as well as escapement routes. Transplanted deer have been observed as being "lost" when they are relocated and eventually die of malnutrition and predation.

I worked on the urban archery plan for Utah for about 2 years and was surprised myself when they up and decided to shoot these deer with snipers. We'll see how this pans out.

[sneekeepete]

Tugg where did you find this information I would like to read it. Saying the mortality rate is 100% doesn't mean anything without a time line. All deer die.... So how long does it take 100% of Transplanted deer to die?
I know that mule deer are the least likely animal to transplant succesfully but isn't that better than killing them when our herds are so rough.

[camodup]

Keyword, Bountiful... for anyone who doesnt know where Bountiful Utah is... its the same place deer have been wintering for the last ten gazillion years...

[derekp1999]

If you build a home on a golf course do you call and whine to the clubhouse when a dimpled ball comes through your living room window? Or how about if you buy a house near railroad tracks, do you stand out in the yard shaking your fists at the trains because the pictures on your wall hang crooked?
There are risks that you take when you buy/build a home in certain areas, and you know those risks going in. If you have a home halfway up a mountain that is known (and has been known for YEARS) to have deer frequent the area, that's a risk you assume when you sign the papers on the house. I'm sorry your garden is being eaten, there are resources out there to help people plant beautiful gardens with plants deer don't eat or even detract them. You bought the house, knew that "hey, there are a lot of deer around here," and now the animals are being fed to people in homeless shelters. Doesn't add up to me, in a time where were straining our brains to figure out how to get more deer these ones are being killed.

[Mularcher]

I'm missing something, I've watched the deer in this area they run from the foothills where hunting is allowed into the neighborhoods. Wouldn't just extending the Buck season thin the herd or like other states make a hunter shoot a doe before a buck for one year help? I'd think letting sportsmen that pay for a right to hunt handle the problem is better than a Sniper??