American Sniper – Humane Society style
Deer feeders such as the one pictured here spray whole corn to attract the deer. Our team shoots each female deer with a dart from a projector gun like the one held by my colleague Josh Irving (above). The dart immobilizes the deer for a brief period during which the contraceptive is administered. Photo by Stephanie Boyles Griffin
Today, I am in Hastings-on-Hudson, a bedroom community about a half hour north of New York City, on a deer hunt. The weapon of choice is a dart gun, and it’s one of the key tools in our collaborative experiment with the town to vaccinate Hastings-on-Hudson’s deer and prevent the treated animals from reproducing, as a way of building greater tolerance for their presence and reducing their impacts on shrubbery and the forest. This effort builds on our experience in conducting humane deer-control programs on Fire Island National Seashore in New York and on Fripp Island in South Carolina.
This one is different than the others because the control program is happening within a town with a year-round population of 7,500 residents. In 2009, Hastings-on-Hudson proposed a trap-and-kill program to control its 120 or so deer, but a citizens’ group, led by Barbara Stagno, persuaded Mayor Peter Swiderski that killing deer would not be sustainable. She put him in touch with Dr. Allen Rutberg, a Tufts University wildlife scientist who once worked at The HSUS and has led other humane wildlife population control programs, and together they charted a course to control the deer by vaccinating the females and limiting reproduction.
“It is a practical solution in a dense community, where lethal options are problematic,” Mayor Swiderski told me today. “There’s an eagerness to see that the problem is addressed.”
Our team has darted 25 deer thus far, and we’ll be here into April. “Our goal is to treat two-thirds of the female segment of the population – from 30 to 50 — in order to curb the size of the population over time,” says Stephanie Boyles Griffin, senior director of Innovative Wildlife Management for The HSUS.
Stephanie and her team have set up feeder stations, with automatic dispensers spraying whole corn in a 10-foot radius of the four-foot-high device twice a day, taking advantage of the clustering of deer around these sites. Our team then approaches the deer, already pretty well habituated to a human presence, and shoots a targeted female with a dart that immobilizes her for a brief period. When she is down, our expert team removes the dart and treats the entry point. We attach a numbered tag to both ears and then inject the PZP-22 vaccine, which should prevent pregnancy for 22 months. We collect a little blood for a pregnancy screening, administer a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and do body measurements. We then reverse the effect of the tranquilizer, and it usually takes the deer two or three hours to recover. Our team stays with them until they get back on their feet, to protect them from dogs, coyotes, or any other possible threat.
We’ve found the deer are in pretty good condition even after this tough winter in the Northeast. This morning, we came across about 10 deer already darted, and we weren’t able to get a good shot on any untagged adult females. But we’ll be back out this evening, and should be able to get a clean shot at one or two. We’ll stay here until we hit our target number.
The evidence of strong community cooperation has been encouraging. Homeowners who welcome our conducting the procedure on their property plant green flags on their lawn to signal to us that it’s open season on their property. One woman approached our vehicle today – identified with our logo and a “HOH DEER PROJECT” rooftop sign – and told us how much she appreciated our efforts.
There are many locations, like the densely populated Hastings-on-Hudson, where hunting isn’t an option. People want something done about deer impacts, but most don’t want a violent outcome for the animals, especially if there’s a more humane alternative. If this program succeeds here, it’s one that can be replicated in hundreds of communities throughout the country dealing with similar conflicts. Human-wildlife conflicts are a real issue, and no group puts more of its shoulder into humane solutions than The HSUS. In our quest to help all animals, we are happy to provide leadership and forge solutions that are good for communities and the people and animals living with them.
We share and have shared for thousands of years our planet with animals as modern man. Animals are part of vital ecosystems, and it is our enormous population growth, and modernization that has spread into their land. We have encroached on them, and because of this, I believe nature’s way of controlling population has diminished duch as the case with deer. It is our responsibility to find methods of non violent means to share so I am so pleased to read this.
i appreciate it when people own up to the fact that humans have the population explosion, not the animals…we are invading their habitat..
I agree with June whole-heartedly — the non-violent methods, the non-killing, the non-murdering of the deer is a HUGE plus in this plan … and sterilizing some, not ALL, of the deer is another very good point in this plan — I wish this plan would spread throughout our natural world when the issue of over-population crops up. Has anyone communicated with the BLM regarding such a plan? I want to give deep thanks to Barbara Stagno, Mayor Swiderski and Dr. Allen Rutberg for taking this route. I also believe the deer appreciate it.
Since our voices have gone ignored in regards to the “wolf control” in Alaska and Idaho, can this be suggested as an alternative to their hunts they issue?
I agree — I want this plan to spread throughout our natural world when the issue of over-population and management crops up.
That’s well done. Thanks for going the extra mile on this one and thanks to Hastings on Hudson for thinking outside the gun.
True — I’m very proud of the residents of Hastings on Hudson — I want more and more for others to replicate their wonderful Deer plan — for once, people are rejecting the irrational and senseless brutality and cruelty of murdering deer.
Please do this xxx
This is so exciting. We applaud all those involved in bringing this project to Hastings on Hudson. We tried to bring this non-lethal method to our metroparks in the Detroit area and the University of Michigan campuses in Dearborn and Ann Arbor, Michigan, but the MI Dept of Natural Resources would not allow it. We are hopeful that this will be a HUGE success along with the other projects using PZP so that deer all over the country can benefit. It will be a success story utilized often! The use of lethal methods is inhumane and most definitely NOT safe in our metroparks, nature preserves, college campuses and communities!
Since the does (females) are already pregnant (breeding occurs in November and December) are they forced to miscarry the fetus at this point? While I see this as a practical alternative in confined spaces/close communities its not a practical alternative in areas where the deer population is spread out and they do not rely on feeders. Were you allowed to get a special permit from the DEC to feed the deer, if so what was that as others could benefit from it?
They have started killing the deer in my city of Avon Lake, Ohio. They are going to do it every year from now on. How can we stop it? We have tried, but our City Council won. Please help!
Hastings residents won this issue by targeting the Mayor and his board on the Internet. Examples can be found on utube by searching Peter Swiderski Mayor
Killing our deer in Avon Lake, Ohio. Please help!
This is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard. What a creative, compassionate alternative to hunting!
Thank you Wayne and the HSUS for all you do to protect our beautiful wildlife! Deer are one of the most gentle, beautiful creatures God ever made and there are so many people who do not understand them and just want to kill them. We have them on our property all the time, they have babies here and we watch them grow and thrive. I am a professional photographer and I have some of the most wonderful photographs of these gentle beings. Thank you so much for protecting deer from hunters that just want them gone and don’t care if they suffer.
I agree with June whole-heartedly — the non-violent methods, the non-killing, the non-murdering of the deer is a HUGE plus in this plan … and sterilizing some, not ALL, of the deer is another very good point in this plan — I wish this plan would spread throughout our natural world when the issue of over-population crops up. Has anyone communicated with the BLM regarding such a plan? I want to give deep thanks to Barbara Stagno, Mayor Swiderski and Dr. Allen Rutberg for taking this route. I also believe the deer appreciate it.
The law of unintended consequences will inevitably prove that this method is inferior to hunting. I wonder how many bucks will die of exertion myopathy or auto collisions this fall as they continue to roam far and wide for receptive does that they will never find??? Not that they’ll be able to get all of the does with their new method. they’ll sterilize some. Some may need multiple doses before the drugs take hold, others will probably die from complications from the darting process and still others will escape with their estrous cycles intact. Meanwhile – bucks will continue to behave naturally – with some unfortunate and grisly consequences. Sad, it’s all very sad.
All over the northeast, there are people going to bed hungry. Venison (deer meat) is a healthy protein source. This is tree hugging gone wild. Bows and crossbows would put food in the bellies of the starving. I will never understand the logic of left-wing thinking. The world is set up, in fact it works quite well, to have life from death. In order for something to live in the animal world et al, something, either plant or animal must die. Death. Dead. Just as natural as birth. Nobody gets out of this life alive. There is just nothing wrong with hunting the excess deer and using the resulting meat to feed people.
So true Sue, so true. The animal-rights crowd seems to not understand the fact that nothing lives without being a party to the death of something. Statistics like the number of native plant and animal species that are burned off, plowed under, driven to seek new home ranges, shot by paid sharpshooters, chewed up and spit out the blades of the combines, etc, etc, etc . . . are lost on them. It is a state of denial and the height of hypocrisy.
SUE — PLEASE! … STOP with “feeding the poor” — …. that’s a truly lame defense and, by the way, an UNTRUE claim …. no one here is denying the existence of death, as if pro-lifers are UNrealistic — or rejecting death as part of the cycle of life — THAT’S NOT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT! — with hunters in the picture, the deer die PREMATURE deaths — [how would you feel if instead of living to the ripe old age of 104, someone (other than you) decides it’s time for you to go at age 38?] — with hunters in the picture, all animals die premature deaths AND violent deaths. Re-think what you’re saying and what your source is — you spout cliches, tags and labels, as if they’re all true — they’re NOT! What is this: “…the logic of left-wing thinking” — where did you get this from? Listen to this — hunters LIKE to hunt, they LIKE the act of hunting–lifting the rifle, pointing & shooting — killing — snuffing the life out of a LIVE ANIMAL (there’s a psychological payoff) — is it left-wing to feel sorry for these deer & other animals who awake each morning to live their lives, roaming about the forest, running their errands ONLY to have a bullet put into them AND LIFE STOPS FOR THEM — FOREVER?
sue feeding deer meat which is not butchered by well trained butchers can be a problem, when killed by gunshot, they have lead all over their bodies, lead in a human body causes death. the poor are being fed nutritious food. they dont need dead deer just because some get a thrill out of killing a live animal and usign it as a target. and male deer can adjust to this contraceptive just fine and will not be dashing wildlife about. i lived with deer for 20 years nd never saw the wild thrashing about that dan tries to bring up. that is another myth that hunters use.
Didi — I agree with you 100% — thank God someone came up with this beautiful plan to help control the deer population … may this spread everywhere. I’d like to add that the REAL reason hunters kill deer dead in their tracks is NOT because they believe the deer are a nuisance or are pests — hunters LIKE to hunt, they LIKE the act of hunting–lifting the rifle, pointing & shooting — killing — snuffing the life out of a LIVE ANIMAL (there’s a psychological payoff) — I so feel sorry for these deer & other animals who awake each morning to live their lives, roaming about the forest, running their errands (if you will) ONLY to have a bullet put into them AND LIFE STOPS FOR THEM — FOREVER! Once again, I hope this Hastings on Hudson deer plan spreads like weeds… everywhere ….