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There is a controversy raging in Marin. Battle lines are being drawn. The storm is focused on two introduced populations of deer species in the Point Reyes National Seashore: Fallow Deer and Axis Deer.
As of the beginning of 2008, the National Park Service has brutally shot to death over half of the 1,100 Fallow and Axis Deer.
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WildCare strongly opposes the killing of these deer.
If population management is required, WildCare advocates a plan to humanely and non-lethally manage not exterminate -- these deer.
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How the Deer Got Here
The Fallow and Axis Deer were introduced to Point Reyes in 1948 when the San Francisco Zoo donated the deer to Millard Ottinger, a landowner who created a hunting club on his ranch near Mount Vision.
When the National Seashore was created in 1962, hunting stopped and the two deer herds grew. Today the Axis and Fallow Deer have become established in the parks and other open spaces in West Marin.
National Park Service Management
In 1973 The Park Service enacted an informal deer management plan. Under that plan, the Park kept the herds in check with a program of regular killing to cull the herd.
The informal management plan was suspended in 1994. In August 2006, the Park Service adopted a new plan to manage their population.
According to information provided on their website, (http://www.nps.gov/) the National Park Service claim is that “...[National] Parks are specifically mandated to control exotic species ‘up to and including eradication’ of a population if that species does not meet an identified park purpose and if such control is ‘prudent and feasible.’ Only through the removal of exotics and other changes resulting from human disturbance can the National Park Service return its park units to the most natural condition possible and meet its mandate to preserve them in this condition for future generations.”
According to the National Park Service, "Final Non-Native Deer Management Plan & Environmental Impact Statement" completed in August 2006,
“This Final Non-Native Deer Management Plan & Environmental Impact Statement analyzes... [five] alternatives...[to] assist the National Park Service in the restoration of native ecosystems...
“The NPS “...preferred alternative would completely remove both species of non-native deer from the Seashore by 2021 using a combination of long-acting contraceptives and lethal removal. ...A number of alternatives calling for relocation, fencing, hunting, and contraception alone are discussed as Considered but Rejected.”
The National Park Service hired White Buffalo, Inc., a company that specializes in deer management. According to their website (http://www.whitebuffaloinc.org/) White Buffalo offers a range of techniques, including trapping and relocating, fertility control, sharpshooting, controlled hunting, and trapping and euthanasia.
In August, 2007 White Buffalo began shooting the deer.
An Alternative Point of View
WildCare strongly opposes the unnecessarily brutal killing of the Fallow and Axis Deer that have resided in Point Reyes National Seashore for more than half a century. WildCare believes that if population management is required, a plan should be implemented to humanely and non-lethally manage not exterminate these deer.
For research purposes only, the Park has contracepted 80 does with a new vaccine called GonaCon Blue. According to internationally renowned wildlife contraception expert, Dr. Jay Fitzpatrick, it should be highly effective. It may be delivered remotely via a dart gun so capture of the deer is unnecessary, but the Food and Drug Administration currently requires tagging of animals being treated with contraceptives, which results in unnecessary stress on the deer, as well as expense for the Park Service.
WildCare believes the Park Service should wait until results of this study are available before proceeding with their plan to kill the deer. Wildlife contraception experts and advocacy groups are already lobbying the FDA to remove the tagging requirement considered to be unnecessary. By waiting for the results of the study and the removal of the FDA regulatory red tape, hundreds of these beautiful animals will avoid being brutally slaughtered.
The current methods of lethal control used by the Park are inhumane.
The Park’s plan targets female Fallow Deer for killing 5 to 1 over male deer, and killing of the deer began while does still had dependent fawns in their care. Does hide their young fawns while foraging for food, so mothers that ventured to baited food stations were shot never to return to their young. Many orphaned fawns slowly starved to death.
West Marin newspapers, including the Point Reyes Light, Coastal Post and The West Marin Citizen, reported that multiple Fallow Deer bodies had been found with gunshot wounds to the abdomen. The White Buffalo “sharpshooters” supposedly only kill deer with one lethal and humane shot to the head or neck that results in immediate death. Clearly this is not the case with these bodies found; a slow, painful, bleeding-to-death scenario is more likely. Video footage of the White Buffalo contractor shooting deer in Ohio shows deer wounded by bullets that were left to suffer and slowly die while the “sharpshooters” walked right by them to their next prey. This, too, raises alarming questions about the “humane” killing of the Point Reyes deer.
Whether or not the deer should be removed because of their non-native status, it is Park’s responsibility -- and that of each and every one of us who values wildlife -- to ensure the most humane means are used to control the deer populations. After all, we find ourselves in this predicament because of human actions over fifty years ago. It is our responsibility to resolve it in a manner that respects and protects the lives of these magnificent animals. | 
