Deer Round-Up Rumors Addressed By Berkeley Officials

BERKELEY, NJ — A rumor that has been circulating recently and shared by Patch readers regarding killing deer in senior communities is untrue, officials said.

The rumor is that in the Silver Ridge Park North and West communities deer, including fawns, will be rounded up by police in the fall and people will be allowed to shoot and kill them with bows and arrows.

"I have no idea where such an outrageous rumor came from, but I can tell you that it is not true," Berkeley Township Administrator John Camera told Patch.

Camera said that the deer population is an issue and that "enhanced hunting" has been discussed.

Recently, through the Berkeley police and animal control, the Division of Fish and Wildlife - Bureau of Wildlife Management attended a meeting with representatives from all adult communities in Berkeley, Camera said. This meeting was to answer questions about wildlife issues, including the deer population, he said.

Options were explained and each homeowners association planned on going back to their communities to discuss these with their associations, Camera said. Representatives from the Division of Fish and Wildlife agreed to make themselves available for those meetings as well, he said.

"That is as far along as anything has gone at this point in time," Camera said.

As some senior communities have a Toms River mailing address while residing in Berkeley, Toms River officials have also received calls regarding the rumor.

"Toms River has no plans to hurt any of the deer," said Jillian Messina, media relations specialist for the Toms River Police Department.

A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection told Patch he had no information about the rounding up of deer in the communities.

"Evidently this is just a rumor," the DEP spokesman said.