B.C. towns opt for relocation over deer cull
Kill plan protested as animals cause property damage, threaten humans
After several controversial years of killing their excess deer, a quartet of Interior B.C. communities are set to debut a new system of merely deporting their unwanted ungulates.
To be rolled out later this winter, the $100,000 program would livetrap 80 deer from the Kootenayregion towns of Kimberley, Invermere, Cranbrook and Elkford, and then truck them to far-flung wilderness areas.
“Whether deer retain some innate memory of predators can only be tested by moving deer from urban areas to natural areas,” Ian Adams, with VAST Resource Solutions, the architect of the new plan, told the Cranbrook Daily Townsman earlier this week.
And as Adams told another media outlet in the area, “these are animals that are now accustomed to staring down perceived threats from people and pets, particularly dogs.”
The deer relocation plan was struck in response to massive opposition to the current policy of ensnaring urban deer in nighttime clover traps and then dispatching someone in the morning with a bolt gun.
The Animal Alliance of Canada, for one, has favoured dealing with problem deer through anti-feeding bylaws, by distributing deer birth control and “hazing” the animals with dogs.
“Although hazing sounds like it is hard on the animals and likely to cause accidents and property damage, in reality, the deer are gently pressured by specially trained dogs and gingerly pick their way through the streets and out of town in the early dawn hours,” read a 2012 report by the group.
The B.C. SPCA has similarly opposed cull plans, saying they are not a “sustainable, evidence-based solution.”
Of course, the Kootenay deer may similarly face an untimely death under the new system.
After a lifetime in the rose gardens of Kimberley and Invermere, the animals are likely unprepared for the rigours of avoiding hungry wolves or cougars.
The relocation isn’t intended to clear the Kootenays of pesky deer, but is merely a pilot project.
Roughly one-fifth of the deer will be fitted with GPS collars and monitored to see if they wander back into urban centres — or are immediately felled by predators.
In recent years, Kootenay towns have joined a growing list of B.C. towns responding to deer infestations with culls.
In 2014, for instance, the District of Invermere approved a $30,000 plan to cull no more than 30 deer.
“The lack of opposition in the (council) room today shows this is heading in the right direction,” Paul Denchuk told the Columbia Valley Pioneer at the time.
“When we first sat as a council any time there was anything to do with the deer, there’d be 50 people in this room, yelling at us.”
In Cranbrook, for instance, deer opposition began to crystallize around 2010, the same year a resident captured a video of a mother deer brutally attacking a neighbourhood dog she appeared to think was threatening her fawn.
The video has since been viewed more than 5.5 million times on YouTube.
“Residents continue to express growing frustration with a range of deer issues from property damage to aggression towards both pets and humans,” reads a note on the City of Cranbrook website.