deer cull
MLive

The Ann Arbor Deer Cull Didn't Meet Quota, Partly Because of the Protestors

Ann Arbor has a problem with deer. Too bad some fringe groups won't let the city take care of it. 

Most outdoorsmen know that deer can overpopulate a given area fairly effectively. Proper management needs to be in place to keep populations in check. In most places, hunting seasons reach these goals, but for the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, they need help.

For the past several years, they have been hiring sharpshooters to come into the city limits, where hunting is illegal, and perform a deer cull. This service is costly, but they also use it in conjunction with sterilization methods as well. This past year though, things didn't really go as planned.

"There were a number of challenges the lethal program faced which contributed to the removal rate," states a memo from City Administrator Howard Lazarus. 

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The cull resulted in 115 deer being removed by a hired sharpshooter. The goal was 250. Some of the challenges the sharpshooters faced was that deer all seemed to instinctively go where the shooter couldn't be, near schools. So, naturally, anti-hunters and animal rights activists that were against the cull, gathered and rallied creating as much noise as possible to drive the deer to those off-limits locations.

According to the report, almost 75% of the city voters approve of removing deer from Ann Arbor. It's amazing how just a few bad eggs can ruin it for the rest of us.

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