City will pay professional sharpshooters to kill deer herd.

City will pay professional sharpshooters to kill deer heard.

www.wzzm13.com

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WZZM) - The Grand Haven City Council recently approved a plan to thin the city's deer herd. The hunt will take place before this month is over.
John Nedderman remembers when a single deer drew attention. Now he expects half a dozen in his yard. He says the hunt is long overdue. Some of the Grand Haven herd make daily visits to chew on Nedderman's landscaping. He got nets that were supposed to keep deer away. It hasn't worked.
John Naser, a Grand Haven Councilman says, "We do not intend to eliminate the herd, just thin it out." Naser's "yes" vote helped approve the hunt. He says deer are damaging property, showing up on decks, and becoming a public safety concern. The issue passed in time for a DNR-approved January hunt. The city will pay professional sharpshooters around $5,000 to complete the task.

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Mod Edit: Fixed spelling in title and trimmed down quoted material



[edit on 1/7/09 by FredT]

5000 bucks to kill some deer? This is crazy! I cant belive sharpshooters are going to go in to this very populated community and start shooting rifles around like nutballs! Rifle bullets can travel up to a couple miles, so if they miss who knows what they might hit. Killing Deer for sport is ok with me, to slay them because they chew up your bushes, thats just dumb. Deer were here first and are gods gift to man. We should not Kill and destroy everything that is an inconvineience.

www.wzzm13.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ChilledVoodoo



INteresting how Michigans economy (as most others) is in the tank, and the locals aren't stocking up on Venison........ At least harvest them to feed those in need.........

Don't live too far from there. Crazy rich people that think deer are pest after they build in the woods. people offered to bow hunt them but they didn't want to wound them just kill. Simple job get in a tree stand and wait for them to walk by.

mikell

If a deer population has to many in it - it is unhealthy for the deer. I used to live in a place where the deer needed to be thinned out. A lot of the deers ribs were showing. Of course the people there were the don't kill Bambi crowd so nothing got done about it.

There is only a limited food supply and when you have too many deer they all start to starve. It isn't natural for the deer to go into peoples yards and eat the bushes. People in the neighborhood were even planting bushes that the deers weren't supposed to eat. They ate them anyway.

Just like how people say that the earth can't support all the humans that inhabit it. Whether you agree or disagree there is only so much to go around before it starts hurting everybody.

In this day and age,deer is food and not a pest.I think the more deer,the better for us when the economy takes a crap and falls.Let them reproduce like crazy and then we have more food.

What are they doing with the meat? Anyone know? Be a shame to waste pounds and pounds of venison....

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife


I wrote my post b4 seeing yours.That makes sense.
2 lines

Cronic wasting disease is becoming a real threat to deer all over the country. An overpopulation of them in any area is not healthy for anyone. I dont know why they have to pay someone though. They usually just open up deer season again.

What a waste.

Hunters who will take the carcasses away to eat should be allowed to kill one or two each, instead of paying shooters.

reply to post by ChilledVoodoo


Rifle bullets are not going to be traveling several miles, any 'trained sharpshooter' knows to be aware of what's beyond the target anyway. They should have just given out some permits and recruited volunteers. They probably could have gotten people to pay them instead. I wish they would send me the venison, I love the stuff.

Originally posted by Pinktip
reply to post by ChilledVoodoo

 

INteresting how Michigans economy (as most others) is in the tank, and the locals aren't stocking up on Venison........ At least harvest them to feed those in need.........

I'm not familiar with that areas hunting laws but I'm sure there are all sorts of legislative barriers keeping people from harvesting the deer from firearm ownership regulations to permitting and licensing the act of hunting itself and if you should that far "bag" limits on the game.

It bothers me to no end when there's a 1 per season limit for legitimate hunters then the government goes out and brings in "specialists" to slaughter the animals because not enough were taken.

Another thing that bothers me is limits that say I can go and get 1 per for myself but I can go ahead and get 3 or 4 per if I give the meat to a shelter. Donating the meat is fine and all but if for some reason I want to take two for myself this year I cant? It's just stupid.

The local DEP figures based on estimated popualtion a number that should be taken to retain balance in the given area then politics moves in and has to alter the number to pacify the ignorant peta population only to force a mass murder in future years because the population grows beyond sustainability and they begin to starve and spread into built areas eating garbage, wandering into homes and buildings and causing numerous traffic accidents.

Sorry for the rant. But government is a pretty big obstacle between people and their food.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by thisguyrighthere]

mmmmm.....Venison........

reply to post by ChilledVoodoo

He says the hunt is long overdue.

There is nothing wrong or unusual about a controled hunt. The controversy is usually how and who should do it.

Deer are dangerous to have around! They hurt themselves as well as humans. I know well as I had one bound out of a roadside and land on my windshield killing the animal, severely lacerating me, totaled my vehicle, my vehicle went out of control and slammed into a semi head on causing more damage to me and totaling the semitrailer!

Deer are fine to look at but their numbers need to be kept reasonable. The only population control they have in the city is being hit by cars. No bears, preditors or hunters so measures need to be taken on an ongoing basis.

The deer we have in the lower 48 these days are genetically superior to what used to be around. They have learned and inadvertantly genetically selected and thrive in urban and semiurban environments. Especially the white tails that now will grow to 300 lb. or more. They used to be shy, little things, not now!

Has anyone posed this question before...

How does one become a "professional sharpshooter".

While various firearm tournaments could establish who possesses the basic skills, how does one become qualified for urban hunting?

How many Texans are they asking for ?

We got a state full of sharpshooters.

I live outside of Roanoke, Virginia, and they did the same thing here a couple years back. The city offered something like $70-$100 or so for every deer fur turned in.

I don't know about Michigan but here the deer are almost as tame as pigeons in Washington. You can almost walk right up to lots of them, and some of the bucks you wouldn't even want to try because I have seen them try to attack peoples' cars before. There are tons of them and they've seen so many people and cars they just get jaded. Nothing against the deer but I can understand the situations that arise here.

[edit on 10-1-2009 by bsbray11]

Originally posted by mrsdudara
Cronic wasting disease is becoming a real threat to deer all over the country. An overpopulation of them in any area is not healthy for anyone. I dont know why they have to pay someone though. They usually just open up deer season again.

I hope they shoot the weaker specimens , at least it mimics what would happen "naturally". By that i mean that wolves do not waste their energy trying to bring down healthy bucks. The genetic integrity of the herd is not compromised that way.
Of course the genetic well-being of the herd is not a concern for a pack of wolves , its just easier to kill a diseased or injured animal.

We have to kill them, or else they'll die...

What a stupid argument. Hunters were really reaching when they came up with that nonsense.

I support hunting and I support hunters, I just think it's a shame that people have to come up with ridiculous arguments like "I'm shooting this deer for its own good." They shouldn't have to make up stupid crap like that - hunting is a tradition shared by just about every culture throughout time, the practice is older than the species itself.

Hunting with rifles is not necessarily unsafe within town limits - it's the ammunition that matters, in terms of over-penetration and ricochet. Using frangible ammunition would mitigate the risk somewhat. Alternately, they could use shotguns.

IF we didn't live in such a namby-pamby society, they could use traps, and not have to stand around the in the freezing cold all morning waiting for a deer to wander across their sight picture...

Bah, I say!

this is nothing new- they have been doing it in new joysey for years
and no that is not a typo
they do it at night and use suppressors to keep the noise down and almost always take head shots
then the meat gets donated to local food shelters and people who need food
to many deer will spread diseaseamongst them selvesor die of starvation etc.we allowed the population to get out of control- in the early to mid 1900's in pa we didn't even have a hunting season. they were rare. now we built them up and now we are responsible to control them. pa used to have the 4th largest deer population in the states but i think we fell to 6th now