Op-Ed: Essex County Resident Opposes Annual Deer Cull

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The following op-ed comes courtesy of Millburn resident Janet Piszar. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

Contrary to his word, this year the Essex County executive has allowed recreational deer hunters (as opposed to sharpshooters) in our reservations to reduce the deer population.

Two decades of reservation hunts have proved that hunting accelerates reproduction; here is why:

1) The incidence of twinning on hunted lands was 38% and 14% on un-hunted lands (Richter & Labisky, ‘Reproductive Dynamics and Disjunct White-Tailed Deer Herds in Florida’). After hunts, remaining deer have additional food that increases the weight and health of the deer and birthrates.

2) When animals are not hunted, growth and recruitment are balanced by natural mortality and the average growth rate is zero (William Robertson, ‘Wildlife Ecology and Management’)

3) Deer live in rigid social structures and hunts disturb the hierarchy. The elders determine territory and breeding rights. When they are killed, young bucks and does breed at an earlier age (Joanna Ehlers ‘The Hierarchy of Deer’).

4) Human predation by hunting keeps the herds young where all does are of reproductive age right up to the time of their deaths. Herds left alone are multi-generational where does are no longer able to reproduce but maintain the hierarchy (Joanna Ehlers, ‘The Hierarchy of deer’).

5) Dr. John Hadidian reports that nature is always in flux and wildlife grows to the level of their food supply. When food begins to deplete, the deer population declines. (author, Wild Neighbors)

The NJ Audubon Society’s White Paper Report, ‘Forest Health and Ecological Integrity, Stressors and Solutions’ March 2005, cites, “wildlife management to facilitate hunting opportunities is a key reason for deer overpopulation.”

State wildlife agencies manage deer (and ‘game’ animals) for shootable surplus. They provide supplemental food in Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) so does are well-fed and reproduce at peak capacity. Underfed and underweight does reproduce at lower birthrates if at all. NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s 1990 report on compensatory rebound cites that even during aggressive hunts to eliminate does, the females had birth rates that not only replaced those killed but increased the number in herds.

Fish and wildlife agencies are invested in hunter success and satisfaction. The hunting license sales directly generate revenue as well as income from annual federal grants. These are based, in part, on the number of hunting licenses sold (the Federal Wildlife Restoration Act, aka Pittman-Robertson, 1937).

It is a myth that hunting is management for population control; wildlife management is for the hunters. They desperately need us to believe hunting is a necessity and not recreation for the thrill of the kill. Happily today, public tolerance of blood sports is in accelerated decline.

• See Related: Controversial Deer Hunt Will Return In Essex County For 2024

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