Sunday, July 12, 2015
Here is DeNicola's and Maddock's proposal
Someone sent me a copy of the June 30 proposal made by Anthony DeNicola and Jody Maddock.
The deer estimates are all over the place. I knew Wildlife Services was back in the picture. They were looking at my blog. USDA Wildlife Services were the killers from 2006-2008. I have an accident report about those clowns on my website, lebocitizens.com. They weren't drug tested, couldn't cite the safety rules, and were known to shoot themselves in the foot or through the floorboard of their trucks.
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I went on Guidestar to look at White Buffalo's (hereafter WB) IRS 990's and any other information provided to Guidestar. As far as the 990's are concerned, the latest one shown is for calendar year 2013. WB reported revenue of $742,240 against expenses of $543,272, for a net gain of $198,168. Those expenses included $369,128 in salaries and benefits, with the greatest part of that figure going to Dr. DeNicola - as one might expect. Dr. D. reports working 60 hours/week for a salary of $120,000, plus benefits. Net assets were $1,514,124. WB made a grant of $20,583 to the University of Georgia Research Foundation to cover a student's stipend as part of a research project into fertility control of whitetail deer.
The only "interesting" thing I saw on the 990 was a loan of $20,000 that Dr. D. made to WB, apparently to help with cash flow. Otherwise, this report is "rather typical" of a 501(c)(3) of its size.
What I found more interesting is this "program description" for the City of Fairfax, Virginia, which was filed with Guidestar in September, 2014:
Fairfax City needed a solution to address landowner concerns about deer conflicts. They had considered archery hunting, but for a variety of reasons, the City Council voted against it. Local animal advocates stepped in and arranged a meeting with White Buffalo Inc. and the city administration. After much discussion, the City Council voted to permit our team at White Buffalo Inc. to conduct sterilization research in the City of Fairfax, VA. We felt like it was an ideal project, the deer densities weren't too high, and it was a good model for stabilizing an existing herd.
We started the project in late-January 2014 and worked 6 nights. All deer were engaged with remote immobilization equipment (darting) from a vehicle on public property. Virginia law prohibited shining lights on private property without prior permission which greatly diminished our ability to search for deer in neighborhoods. We also could not use bait, a standard element in deer capture protocols, resulting in reduced efficiency and our ability to attract deer to the public lands where we had access. We captured 18 females, about 40% of the local population based on camera surveys. The spotlighting law was recently changed and we have received permission to use bait for capture efforts next winter. We would like to capture over 90% of the population at the conclusion of the next winter’s field season.
Fairfax City is very similar to Mt Lebanon in size but it actually has significantly fewer people. The city council has banned hunting within its boundaries.
Fairfax City
Population estimate 24,483
Land in Square Miles 6.24
Mt Lebanon
Population estimate 33,067
Land in Square Miles 6.06 square miles
When Denicola estimated the deer population for Fairfax City, 12 fixed cameras were utilized.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/07/02/reston-permits-a-deer-hunt-in-a-residential-neighborhood-update-on-fairfax-city-project/
Fairfax City's sterilization program is also not paid for by taxpayers (Humane Deer Management, a volunteer organization, provides the funding) and the deer are tagged and fitted with radio collars for tracking. Volunteers also help with the veterinary procedures.
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20150129/NEWS/150129128/1117/city-of-fairfax-spays-the-course-on-deer-management&template=fairfaxTimes
Based on 2013 data, 1 in 71 Pennsylvania residents statewide would be in a deer-related accident. Given the 58 accidents reported in 2014 in Mt. Lebanon and the 33k residents, that translates to 1 in 571 Mt. Lebanon residents being in a deer-related accidents. If our enlightened commissioners have discovered that Mt. Lebanon is facing such a safety crisis, I wonder what they have done to further their civic duty and inform Governor Wolf about this uncontrollable, statewide epidemic?!?!?
Also, although the data on the Mt. Lebanon accident report was pretty thin, only one of those 58 accidents on its face appeared to involve a likely human physical injury (vehicle rolled, which is of course tragic and should be avoided in any reasonable way possible). But I wonder how many human injuries were involved in the 91% of other accidents that are not being targeted in the interests of public safety?
I think all of this helps demonstrate what we all know, which is that the purported goal of reducing deer-related accidents is merely a politically-viable justification for "culling the herd."
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