IDA Blasts Proposed Deer Kill

Organization Calls for Use of Non-Lethal Population Control

San Rafael, Calif.—In the wake of this week’s announcement by The Villages retirement community that the neighborhood would be employing a contractor to cull six or seven deer, San Rafael-based In Defense of Animals (IDA) is calling on the community to immediately cancel the kill and initiate a humane, non-lethal population control program.

“So long as your community remains appealing and accessible to deer, more will move in from surrounding areas to fill any newly vacant niche that you create,” wrote Elliot M. Katz, DVM, IDA President in a letter to The Villages assistant general manager Steve Loupe. “The only way to effectively and permanently keep deer away from areas where they are not wanted is to make the habitat unattractive or inaccessible to them by implementing an integrated deer-management program, using habitat-modification strategies, repellents, fencing, frightening devices and reproductive controls.”

In the letter, Katz encourages The Villages to look into the use of SpayVac™ (www.spayvac.org), a contraceptive vaccine that has proven highly effective in deer and can be used to control populations.

Killing the animals with bows and arrows is particularly inhumane and causes more injuries to wildlife than any other hunting practice. Scientific studies demonstrate that wounding and crippling rates for bow hunting can be as high as 50-80%.

“We feel, along with many of your residents, that The Villages management is being too quick to kill and to wipe out innocent animals without seeking humane deterrents that will spare the lives of the deer whose only crime is to do what comes naturally to them,” said Katz.

For more information on coexisting with wildlife, please visit www.idausa.org/facts/deercontrol.html.