Amid fierce opposition, protests, lawsuits and everything else that comes with performing a deer cull, the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, approved additional measures for measuring the city’s deer herd.
The vote, which had no members of the public present was kept quiet, so to speak, in an effort to continue the deer management efforts the city has put forth for the past three years. As part of the proposal, a two-year contract with the sterilization and sharpshooting outfit White Buffalo Inc., was approved for $340,000 for the next two years.
Additionally, a $99,000 contract with Jacqueline Courteau for the continuation of her research on the impacts deer are having on the city’s natural areas and a $41,940 research contract with Michigan State University were also approved.
In addition to culling the deer using sharpshooters, Ann Arbor is somewhat of a trailblazing community who, along with Staten Island, NY, are using sterilization techniques to decrease urban deer populations. Ann Arbor’s sterilization techniques focussed on capturing does and removing their ovaries in a makeshift operating room located in a shed at a local golf course. Last year, one of the does died shortly after the sterilization operation, once again questioning the validity of this type of operation on wild animals.
Conversely, Staten Island officials are performing roadside vasectomies for the male deer population in the Big Apple.
