For Immediate Release
Deer Cull Not Justified
New report released by animal protection
groups challenge Ministry of Environment recommendations in deer reports
June 20, 2012: Animal Alliance of Canada, the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada and Born Free USA have just released a report challenging Ministry of Environment assertions that deer are overabundant and must be culled to get their populations “under control”.
The paper authored by Liz White, Director of Animal Alliance and Leader of Animal Alliance Environment Voters and Barry MacKay, Canadian Representative for Born Free USA examines the rationale for lethal deer management put forward by provincial and municipal governments and challenges the accuracy of the reasons given to support lethal action.
“The Ministry is alleging an overabundant deer population as the reason for lethal action,” said Barry MacKay. “However, their own figures do not support their assertions, with huge variations in deer count which demonstrate a lack of accurate deer data. Are Black-tailed deer overabundant at 99,000 or 150,000? Are Mule deer overabundant at 115,000 or 205,000? And are White-tailed deer overabundant at 87,000 or 140,000? I don’t think the Ministry knows how many deer there are and therefore have no scientific basis for the claim of overabundance.”
“We have taken the provincial and local government assertions and researched their accuracy. Deer are blamed for damaging gardens, plantings and community forests, causing increased vehicular collisions, increasing the potential for disease transmission and demonstrating aggressive behaviour,” said Liz White. “However, our research shows that government claims are largely called into question. We urge that the Ministry of Environment, and municipalities who have culled or who are considering killing deer, to implement non-lethal measures when approaching human/deer interactions.”
The report is available at: Animal Alliance: www.animalalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/report-BCDeerCullingJune192012.pdf
It's always been my contention that overabundance of wildlife is derived by the ability of animal populations to maintain a balance through a prey to predator relationship.
ReplyDeleteIt's stunningly evident that there is an imbalance/overabundance in rural and urban deer populations. There are no predators. Any that leave the wild areas in pursuit of natural game in the cities are immediately destroyed!
How are the predators less natural than the prey?
I say Aliance should pay more attention to realities of nature than searching for typos and inconsistencies in other more qualified written works!
Also bear in mind that humans have been predators for millions of years.