Hunt spurs protest

Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 01/01/04 | Megan Boldt

[Holly_P]

A dozen bow hunters ignored protesters on Wednesday and killed 34 deer on the Minneapolis Water Works property in Columbia Heights to help thin the burgeoning captive herd.

Minneapolis spokeswoman Gail Plewacki said the city decided to go ahead with the hunt after the state Department of Natural Resources denied the city's request to use an experimental birth control vaccine to help curb the growth of the deer population.

The property has become a popular spot for people to watch and feed the deer. Columbia Heights Mayor Julienne Wyckoff said some residents gathered around the property early Wednesday to protest the hunt.

"The people I've heard from are against bow hunting," Wyckoff said. "They see it as inhumane. I see it as inhumane."

The hunters had permits. Almost all the deer killed were does.

A Columbia Heights citizen task force recommended that Minneapolis allow bow hunters to trim the herd by half. But officials came up with another plan that would have killed all but about six to 10 deer, and given the remaining does the experimental birth control vaccine.

Bryan Lueth, urban wildlife manager for the DNR, said the department couldn't approve that plan because the drug is allowed only for experimental use or research.

"There was no research questions that could be answered by the proposal," he said. "The purpose was to control the deer population."

Deer have wandered around the 80-acre property for years. But it didn't become a huge problem until the federal government forced the 12-foot-high gates in the fence to close after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The enclosed deer reproduced quickly and the larger herd exhausted its natural sources for food.

Water-works officials estimated on Wednesday there were about 70 deer on the property. The hunters chopped that number nearly in half, but DNR officials say that's more than 15 times too many.

"There's not enough available food for them to get them through the winter," Lueth said. "They've already eaten everything they can reach."

Hunting — especially bow hunting — is becoming a popular and cheap way for communities to fight exploding deer populations. Bow hunting has been allowed in Cottage Grove, Rosemount, Burnsville, Minnetonka and at Lebanon Hills in Dakota County. Ramsey County allows it in some parks.

"I don't know why this has captured so much attention," Plewacki said. "We happen to be a water plant, but communities around Minnesota harvest deer every single year."

Wyckoff said she thought nothing was going to happen to the deer until March and was surprised when she found out Monday night that the hunt would happen in a few days.

Lueth said the DNR informed Minneapolis back in 1999 that the city needed to do something to control the deer population on that property, so what happened shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

"The water works is there to provide drinking water," he said. "It's not there to provide a neighborhood zoo."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Megan Boldt can be reached at mboldt@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5495.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[boycott]

**The property has become a popular spot for people to watch and feed the deer.

**A dozen bow hunters ignored protesters on Wednesday and killed 34 deer

I believe there could have been a better way. Why not tie the deer down and then shot them? <./sarcasm

There really had to be a better solution than letting a bunch of Rambos loose. Killing 34 deer in a place where people watched and feed the deer doesn't sound like great sportsmanship to me.

[Trajan88]

As the world turns.

Trajan88

[chuckles]

It's not about sportsmanship anymore than ringing a chickens neck. It's about thinning the herd. A gun would be too dangerous as the bullet could travel thousands of yards. Poison would work well, but you would waste the meat. I guess you could trank them, but unless you used a ball peen hammer on them, you wouldn't be thinning the herd. It's about killing deer, somehow, someway. I've been on similar hunts in Texas. The sausage tastes just as good as if I hunted them from a tree stand in the feezing rain. The organization got rid of their problem, and I got cheap meat. Kinda win, win, if you know what I mean.

You want a pet, get a dog.

[Richard-SIA]

When liberals prevent proper measures being taken in a timely manner the result is nearly always that a more drastic solution results.
No doubt this measure was delayed by bunny hugger eco-nuts, making it even more necessary in the long run.

Left to themselves the deer in this situation would starve, and still may if the article is accurate.
Some would starve to death, slowly and painfully.
Starving deer lose their Resistance to disease, which can spread beyond the local deer population and wreak havoc among the general deer population.

The deer should have been removed when their numbers were still small. Before, or shortly after, the gates were closed.

I will never consider slow starvation and disease more humane than a quick kill!
A rifle or shotgun is arguably more "humane" than a bow, but probably not practical due to the location.

The damage to the habitat will take longer to repair than the reduction in deer numbers, particularly if the numbers are not reduced sufficiently, then allowed to increase again as the article indicates.

Nothing I saw in the article mentioned "sport", it does not say if the hunters were drawn from the public, or paid professionals doing a job.

Put some blame on the people who try to adopt wild game animals as pets, they exaggerate these problems, while forming irrational attachments to wild animals.

In MANY states such feeding of wildlife is illegal, it tends be bad for the wildlife in a variety of ways.

[The_Pickle]

Very true. My Father worked for the forest service and I am very familiar with the hunt quotas and such. What poeple fail to understand is that hunting is one of the few government regulated activities that people gladly pay for. The deer need to be thinned and the government has taken responsibility for maintaining the forest and wildlife. Those deer were going to be thinned one way or the other for wildlife managment reasons. Better to have citizens pay for the privledge than to have tax payers dollars going to pay professionals to do the job.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Perhaps not, to you..

Here in Maine, we had huge deer herds on some of our Islands..Chebeague Island comes to mind..

"Leave them alone, they're so pretty", etc, etc.

Right up until they became a nuisance to the rich landowners there..and they yelled about it,
"Get rid of em!"

When sharpshooters were hired to thin the herd that they yelled so hard to protect, ("But I don't want them around"), they yelled some more..

Even though the meat went to soup kitchens, and not wasted..

If you want to look at the pretty (overpopulated deer herd)
FEED THEM..and watch them grow..until you cannot feed them anymore, and you hate them..and yell some more..

There is a law of nature, that the sick and weak in a herd, should be culled, the Wolves used to do that, and you hate them for it, ..they're gone

Coyotes used to do it, and you hate them as well..they are almost gone, too

Now you need Hunters to do that, and hate them as well..
They are fighting to survive, too, being called every rotten thing, but you see, when you upset the balance of nature, man must step in..

You CANNOT have it both ways..

These things are done out of kindness, not cruelty..to make up for our interference..

Letting them overpopulate and starve to death, doesn't sound like "good sportsmanship" to me...

Ms.B

[woofer]

Coyotes used to do it, and you hate them as well..they are almost gone, too

Um, define "almost".

Ahh, I remember the vista as seen from the Northwest Tollway when you drove by the Forest Preserve by Ohare Field. All of the tree leaves and branches clipped evenly at about seven feet above the ground. Dead deer inside the fence line because they starved and lacked the energy to jump over it. I believe the State of Illinois finally let them starve in peace since they couldn't get approval for a hunt and all of the tranked and captured deer that were relocated died.

Now, here in Des Moines I see the same thing, down along the river. Herds of more than thirty deer, thin, stunted. It's just a matter of time. BTW, cougars are making a comeback in Missouri and Iowa.

[tkathy]

Wolves used to keep the deer population in check. Bring back huge wolf packs to roam the suburbs.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Gringo1]

You sir, are an idiot.

[Clive]

Bambi syndrome.

Mustn't shoot Bambi!

On the other hand, where a deer population has bloomed, the wolves and cougars cannot be far behind.

So perhaps we should just leave things alone and watch what happens as the deer and their natural enemies encroach into your parks and playgrounds.

[dirtboy]

There really had to be a better solution than letting a bunch of Rambos loose. Killing 34 deer in a place where people watched and feed the deer doesn't sound like great sportsmanship to me.

Agree wholeheartedly. We instead should bring some wolves from Northern Minnesota and release them in the neighborhood. They'll keep the deer numbers in check with a pack kill instead of those horrible, inhuman arrow shots through the heart. And if the wolves kill the occasional dog, cat or toddler, that's just the price we pay for not having to rely on Rambos to control the deer populations.

[Cronos]

Not to upset my rifle-hunting friends, but I see bow hunting as being more of an even contest -- and you get this marvelous sense of awe that you're doign somethign your ancestors had done for thousands of years before PETA and the gun!

[showme_the_Glory]

We've got a huge problem in my neighborhood with deer over-population. The neighborhood association has explored several options including hiring professionals to thin the herd. Through the process, I found out it is legal to shoot them with a bow, right in my own backyard.
I love this jerky!

[sawyer]

Other downeaster here and I hate hunting but have always understood this point. We have played with the world so. things are not as they should be.

[pa_dweller]

Wyckoff said she thought nothing was going to happen to the deer until March and was surprised when she found out Monday night that the hunt would happen in a few days.

Probably ruined her plans of organizing a PETA protest, painting up posters, setting up a nationwide 1-800 save the deer hotline, blah, blah, blah.

We went on a day trip several years ago to Valley Forge. The place is overrun with deer (no hunting - Federal property and all that). They're standing all over the place watching you in broad daylight! And you know what? There wasn't a one bigger than a good sized Lab.

It's great for folks who rarely, if ever, see wildlife. Is it good for the deer?

[fish hawk]

Lib-enviros: aren't they the ones that don't want any deer killed but it's okay to suck the brains out of an unborn baby?

[tertiary01]

My mother was anti-hunting even after she married my hunter dad, until he was able to drag her on a hunting trip near Yosemite before I was born. She said they stumbled on an area where it was apparent at least sixteen deer had starved to death the previous winter. After seeing that she was no longer anti-hunting.