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Vasectomies, Bow-Hunting: Here’s How Staten Island Is Trying To Control Its Deer Population

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Staten Island residents and politicians have proposed bow-hunting as a solution for deer overpopulation on the island.

The borough’s deer population has reached staggering levels over the past 10 years, leaving residents facing a host of dangers and inconveniences, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Its forested environment, lacking a number of deer predators, has proven to be an ideal habitat for the population, bringing ticks, Lyme disease, ecological disruption, and a greater risk of traffic accidents.

“You need to remove the deer. And I don’t mean relocate. They need to be taken out,” Staten Island resident and hunter Corey Bruggeman told TheWSJ.

The Staten Island Parks Department contracted a company called White Buffalo to perform vasectomies on the island’s male deer in 2016 in an attempt to curb population growth. The program cost $4.1 million, and has given vasectomies to 98% of the island’s male deer population so far, according to TheWSJ.

The city is set to renew its contract with White Buffalo for the next five years to continue the vasectomy program.

“We are at the end of a three-year program that has shown success,” the chief of education and wildlife for the Parks Department, Sarah Aucoin, said.

“Killing hundreds of deer was, and still is, a last resort,” she continued.

A deer overpopulation problem has Staten Island considering a controlled hunt of the animals on the borough https://t.co/F03hglwmXC

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 31, 2019

Cornell wildlife specialist Paul Curtis is critical of the vasectomy program, saying it hasn’t been enough to address the issues caused by overpopulation.

“I wouldn’t consider that a success because at 15% to 20% drop, you’ll probably see very little difference in deer collisions, no difference in deer damage or foraging on sensitive plant communities, and no difference in Lyme disease rates,” he explained.

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo said he’s in favor of organizing a borough-wide hunt of the animals by the end of the year in the hopes it can have a more substantive impact than the vasectomy program.

A cull taking place in Staten Island could pose a safety concern, hunter Chris Kiladitris explained.

“There’s no place hunters can go and not worry about someone else coming into the forest with them,” he said.