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AP: Kansas park may use sharpshooters to reduce deer
Published 6/12/2009 in News
SHAWNEE (AP) — Park officials in a Kansas City suburb want to bring in sharpshooters next fall to kill about three-fourths of the deer in a park that they say is overpopulated.
If the park board agrees, it will be the first time Johnson County will use sharpshooters on public land, park spokesman Randy Knight said Thursday.
Surveys done in the past two years found 600 to 700 deer in the 2,230-acre Shawnee Mission Park, about seven times as many as expected in the areas just outside Kansas City. The population grew out of control after deer migrated from nearby areas that were being developed, Knight said.
The dense herd is causing car-deer accidents, prompting complaints from neighbors about property damage and raising the risk for tick-borne diseases, they said. Park staff say the herd needs to be cut to 50 to 200 deer per square mile and this can best be done by killing them. Staff looked into other options and ways other counties have handled deer overpopulation and determined the sharpshooters were the most economical option, Knight said.
The park board will hear the staff's recommendation Wednesday.
Specially trained park officers and local police would do the shooting, working a couple of mornings a week for several weeks, park officials said. They would work in areas where bait had been set out. The park would be closed but reopen later in the day.
Archers might be brought in later to further reduce the herd. The park would remain open then, although areas in which the archers were working would be off-limits to the public, Knight said.
Nicole Matthews, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said she was disappointed with the recommendation and that the use of archers was inhumane.
Park managers will continue to look into non-lethal ways to control the deer population in the future, Knight said.
Found 3 comment(s)!
hunting is not inhumane
Overpopulation leads not only to an increasing # of auto accidents (NOT a humane way to kill deer or injure people) and human death, but also increases the number of diseases that infest the population and transfer to other (HUMAN) population. Trying to catch and relocate puts stress on the deer (Killing many) and risks unnecessary injury to people, and its freakin' EXPENSIVE to do! It is totally unrealistic. The only effective, affordable, and humane thing to do is either a cull (sharpshooters) or reintroduce a top predator, such as wolves or saber-toothed tigers instead of humans to keep the population under control. Better yet, turn it into a profitable enterprise by keeping the herd at a size that promotes growth and trophy racks, then sell expensive hunting permits to rich out-of-state sportsmen keep the population at the desired number. Either way, hunting is the cheapest and safest form of population that actually creates revenue.
Posted by: jerry on 6/20/2009
I live in Shawnee by the park, those deer are not healthy, I sure wouldn't want to eat one. They had a pic of one the ears were covered with tics.
Posted by: dave on 6/19/2009
Deer
Other places around the state of Kansas might like to have some deer.
Posted by: Gene Sky on 6/12/2009