For more information, check the Humane Society's blog.
http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2017/07/epa-gives-thumbs-vaccine-manage-deer-populations-humanely.html
If you’d like to learn more about non-lethal wildlife management, I recommend checking out the Botstiber Institute’s 8th International Conference on Wildlife Fertility Control, which The HSUS is co-hosting next week in Washington D.C. The use of fertility control for deer populations, as well as many other species, will be discussed by experts from around the world. Register here for the conference.Note: The Dietrich W. Botstiber Foundation offered funding for sterilization at virtually no expense to Mt. Lebanon.
8 comments:
Boy, with PA's new Act 10 and now this EPA approval Mt. Lebanon sure looks out of step.
Amazing! Thanks for the news, Elaine. Will the Game Commission now be compelled to approve this choice if sought after by a municipality?
Not likely 10:11.
This approval is exciting news! The cost of "Native PZP" emulsion vaccine, which requires an annual booster is $25 a dose. The inoculation can be done remotely using a dart gun. The "Time-released" PZP vaccine, which is administered once every 2-3 years is $230 dose. The cost of the dart is about $1.50. The additional costs vary depending on who is doing the darting and what they are paid. If you want to pay someone $20,000 a year to dart deer the cost will be higher; if you want to use trained volunteers the cost is less; if you use Mt. Lebanon municipal employees the cost will be their hourly wage X hours darting. Treatment of white-tailed deer with PZP typically reduces pregnancy rates by 80-90%.
I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Mt. Lebanon residents, if given a choice, would choose a safe and humane deer mgt solution like deer contraception. However, the handful of elitist gardeners who refuse to plant deer resistant flowers, or use proven deer repellents and deterrents, do not want a safe and humane deer mgt program. They want to turn Mt. Lebanon's neighborhoods and parks into a dangerous hunting and shooting gallery that threatens the safety of all Mt. Lebanon's families, children, and pets, so that they can get their home featured on Mt. Lebanon's annual garden tour. This small handful of elitist and politically influential residents don't care about their neighbors safety concerns or animal cruelty. They want to turn Mt. Lebanon into a slaughter house. It's an accident waiting to happen - it's only a matter of time.
You're living in fantasy land if you believe that the PA Game Commission will approve sterilization. Their solution to the overabundant deer population in our communities is dead deer, not sterilized deer. Read the document at http://www.mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/13826
Kelly Fraasch and Dan Miller took a trip to Harrisburg to try to overturn their decision with no luck.
Jay Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. presented a seminar on PZP (deer contraception) at the Mt. Lebanon Unitarian Universalist Church on November 3, 2006. Only one Mt. Lebanon Commissioner attended the seminar. A conference call was set up later for Dr. Kirkpatrick with the commissioners. Dr. Kirkpatrick offered to help Mt. Lebanon implement a deer contraception program back in 2006. Ex-Commissioner Barbara Logan, who I believe was Commission President at the time and who was the main commissioner pushing for a deer killing program, led the commissioners in rejecting Dr. Kirkpatrick's offer. When the commissioners voted on the deer killing program, Commissioner Keith Mulvihill (RIP) was the only commissioner who didn't goose-step with the others and voted against the killing program. Bottom line. Mt. Lebanon had an opportunity to implement a safe and humane deer mgt. program back in 2006 and rejected the offer.
Lecture Series, October, November, 2006
Compassionate Science:
The Evolution and Future of Wildlife Contraception
by world renowned scientist, Jay Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.
Friday, November 3 at 7:30 pm Mt. Lebanon
The Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills (Sunnyhill)
The Pennsylvania Game Commission's (PGC) Artificial Propagation of the Deer Population
If you think there's an over population of deer in Pennsylvania causing deer browse damage and car-deer collisions, then you have to ask yourself why is the PGC artificially propagating the deer population? The PGC's main focus is to increase the deer population so that their hunter constituents have more deer targets. When the increased deer population overflows into the surrounding suburban and urban communities, what's their solution? - opening up suburban neighborhoods and parks to their hunter constituents. Why not ask the PGC to stop artificially propagating the deer population so that we don't need to turn our safe communities and parks into a private hunting preserve? IMO, there should be a class action lawsuit from the victims of car-deer collisions against the PGC for causing these accidents. They're getting away with murder, and no one is paying attention.
See excerpts from the following article - In the PGC's own words.
PENNSYLVANIA PRESS ROOM
09/12/2016
RECORD NUMBER OF ACRES TREATED WITH PRESCRIBED FIRE
HARRISBURG, PA - The Pennsylvania Game Commission is burning its way toward 10,000 acres of better wildlife habitat.
During its spring burning season, the Game Commission treated a record 8,637 acres with prescribed fire to improve habitat on state game lands and Hunter Access properties statewide.
This is especially great news for deer hunters who hunt on state game lands. The regeneration of tree species after a burn can result in a 400-percent increase in available food for deer, maximizing the habitat’s ability to provide for more whitetails. [more available food triggers deer fertility and reproduction.]
“The key to having more abundant deer populations is by providing better deer habitat,” said Game Commission Executive Director R. Matthew Hough. As you improve the habitat for deer, the area can also support more deer.”
The agency’s prescribed burn program is one of the most effective means to improve deer hunting on game lands.
In order to increase the deer density, the only responsible and sustainable option is to increase the habitat quality for deer. This focus on habitat quality is the cornerstone for how the Game Commission manages its system of state game lands. The majority of today’s forests are 80 to 125 years old and lack a substantial component of young forest that provide deer and other wildlife with abundant browse, forage and cover.
“Every acre of state game lands treated with prescribed fire represents a win for wildlife and hunters,” Hough said. “And we’re proud our crews have improved significantly more acres through prescribed fire each year since 2012.
Although using prescribed fire is extremely cost effective, especially when compared to other techniques such as planting food plots, there is still a substantial cost.
“The agency has budgeted $2 million to improve habitat through prescribed fire this year,” said Hough.
If you look into the history of deer in Pennsylvania they were almost totally wiped out in the early 20th Century. Now because of government mismanagement they're everywhere and our commissioners really think they are going to control them with these silly localized culls.
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