Killing Deer in Ohio

Martin Stolz, reporting for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, describes the problems concerning an overpopulation of deer in Ohio and "a proposal to trap and kill them by firing steel bolts into their skulls."

There are about 525,000 deer roaming Ohio and every year approximately 200,000 are killed by hunters, but that reduction is insufficient according to citizen complaints. In the Solon City Council,

"They griped about the destruction deer cause to landscaped yards and about collisions with cars, which kill an average of 109 deer in the city each year . . . ."

Not everyone is in favor of killing the deer to manage the population.

At a public hearing last week, speakers against the proposal outnumbered the supporters and criticized the use of traps and bolt guns as cruel. A few opposed killing deer at all. Several offered ideas for nonlethal solutions, such as birth control, fencing, special reflectors to deter deer from crossing roads, deer repellents and garden plants unpalatable to deer.

The use of bolt guns may seem cruel, however, the method is commonly used to kill farm animals,

"but aiming the bolt into the correct part of a deer's brain is tricky. Frequent reports of botched killings of wild animals with captive bolt guns(sic) led the veterinary school at the University of Florida at Gainesville to produce educational programs for law enforcement officers, said Professor J. K. Shearer.

Veterinarians say the only way to guarantee quick death with a bolt gun is to bleed the deer by severing its jugular vein and carotid artery. The sight can be gruesome, Shearer said."

Don't expect this issue to be resolved to everyone's satisfaction soon, if ever. To my knowledge, no organized efforts by 'animal rights' groups have surfaced yet and I anticipate they may want to become involved.