Town staff have rejected a proposed deer hunt inside town limits, saying too many people live too close together to take out enough deer.
The Chapel Hill Town Council will discuss the recommendation Monday night. It follows three requests to cull herds that residents say destroy gardens, carry dangerous ticks and pose road hazards.
In November, the town’s own sustainability committee, a citizen advisory board, asked the town to join the state’s urban archery program. It sets up a special hunt outside normal hunting season for bowhunters to kill deer in designated areas. The earliest Chapel Hill could implement it would be 2011.
In a memo to the council, staff say a hunt would be safe in only limited areas. It would have to kill a large number of animals and be repeated, and some wounded animals would need to be tracked onto private property.
“We do not believe an urban hunt is a viable option for the town,” says the memo from Parks and Recreation Director Butch Kisiah, Police Chief Brian Curran, Public Works Director Lance Norris and Asisstant Parks and Recreation Director Bill Webster.
Comments
Experiment
Sat, 01/09/2010 - 10:35 — marcoplosIt might be worthwhile to try a limited hunt in a neighborhood that agrees to participate.
What are the options, then?
Fri, 01/08/2010 - 20:21 — elvisboy77Seems like there is agreement on "too many deer" and Chapel Hill cannot come up with any solution that is PC enough.
Not surprising in a Liberal University Town.
In the meantime, people will kill them with their cars. What a great idea.
The approach is evolving
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 11:07 — marcoplosJohn,
Given that the Town Council is responding to neighborhood concerns & input from ecologists & hunters by being open to the possibility of culling the population via controlled hunts, I wonder if you would acknowledge that the town leaders are being reasonable, are open-minded on the issue, and are not simply PC robots as is your ready explanation for decisions you disagree with.
Quoting Sally Greene
Thu, 01/14/2010 - 20:29 — elvisboy77"No way, no how!"
I think latest article about deer in Squeeze the Pulp sums it up nicely.