Action Alert: Ban the Sterilization of Game Species
ACTION ALERT | SUPPORT HOUSE BILL 5321
BAN STERILIZATION OF GAME SPECIES
KEEP UP THE PRESSURE: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW TO SUPPORT HB 5321
The City of Rochester Hills has now joined on to fight the passage of House Bill 5321 — a bill that would ban the sterilization of game species in Michigan. If you are concerned for the game species in your area, you need to contact your state representative and tell them that you are in SUPPORT of this bill and do not want a permit issued for the sterilization of white-tailed deer and other game species in your neighborhood.
What started in Ann Arbor, has now caused a ripple effect throughout the state. Municipalities are contemplating deer sterilization, with no proven, positive scientific results, to help manage their urban deer populations. Urban bow hunting programs in places like Meridian Township and cull techniques throughout the country have proven to be the most effective ways to manage an overpopulation of a game species.
Furthermore, these deer being dragged into a toolshed, literally, to be sterilized, are not being tested for CWD or Tb and then are being released to continue to cause the deer-vehicle collisions, ecological damage and damage to landscaping which are the driving reasons for additional deer management in the first place. Something isn’t adding up.
The current Ann Arbor permit is an attempt to satisfy anti-hunting and anti-culling stakeholders. The Humane Society of the United States has been one of the driving forces behind sterilization and fertility control efforts in Ann Arbor and around the country. The public, outside of Ann Arbor, was not consulted on the approval of this “research permit”, yet these deer are the public’s deer, held in public trust by the DNR.
More than two hours of testimony for those in opposition has been given during House committee meetings. Michigan United Conservation Clubs and supporters of this bill are going to continue the fight this week and demand that hunters be heard. We need you to pick up your phone and call your legislators, tell them this bill is something you support and that the sterilization of game species is not an effective tool for management.
We have no right to sterilize any species! Use good conservation methods instead, including culling!
Joan… make up your mind. Do you want to conserve the deer or kill the deer, you can’t have it both ways. Sterilization of the deer population means less deer therefor less deer-vehicle collisions. Banning the sterilization of deer to manage THE URBAN deer population and using culling of these GAME SPECIES as the only means of control equals more deer born every year therefor more deer-vehicle collisions. It is a fact that come hunting season, with the hunters out in the woods, deer move around more. I lived in a rural area for 20 years and deer-vehicle collisions dramatically rose with the start of hunting season. The local paper always reminded people of that fact.
And “no proven, positive scientific results” of deer sterilization programs?? Give me a break!! Again… deer unable to conceive equals no spring fawns, no increase in the deer population. How hard is that to understand? And if MUCC is so concerned about CWD or Tb, why aren’t they in there, when these deer are being sterilized, and test for it? So really, what is their genuine concern?
This article is full of contradiction. In one sentence they talk about game species, then in another, urban deer populations. They hope you don’t pickup on that and just see it as an affront to the hunting population. No one is suggestion the sterilization of all deer in Michigan, even though MUCC would like you to believe that.
Joan… quit getting so defensive and read between the lines instead of automatically believing everything you read… at least read carefully and do some research before drawing a conclusion, you owe it to yourself..
When evidence that a method works is lacking, is it OK to perform an experiment?
I think the DNR has answered in the affirmative.
But it’s not the experiment I wanted: I’m not (currently) in support of sterilization. Catch and kill is likely much more effective than sterilization at reducing deer densities long-term, says my intuition, but 1) that’s not the same as data and 2) that might not be the only goal. I don’t think this experiment will provide the data needed to answer the question of whether it is in fact less effective. It will only be able to show that it’s better than doing nothing. Onto goals: Science will not tell me how much more valuable having a few more deer (but sterilized) is than simply having less deer. To “bunny huggers” that might be important. For me, seeing deer in Ann Arbor is not very important. That they are abundant elsewhere is good enough, so long as there aren’t too many near my place. That part is about values, which differ among people, and is not about science.
PS: Whether HSUS supports a measure is irrelevant to me.