- Updated: Jan. 08, 2025, 11:15 a.m.
- |Published: Jan. 08, 2025, 11:02 a.m.
By
To the Editor:
Jeers to Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, who commissioned a wrong-headed plan that allows USDA agents to start killing deer beginning Jan. 6 and continuing through the end of March (“Deer sharpshooters start yearly culling this week in Syracuse,“ Jan. 6, 2025).
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Walsh should call off the misguided slaughter. Killing deer is obscene, unjustified and revolting to those who abhor violence and respect nature more than bureaucratic bloodletting.
The plan is supposed to address deer-vehicle accidents; parks, gardens, and the ecosystem; and public health risks, such as Lyme disease.
Syracuse officials are clearly unaware of the research that proves this plan is unwarranted and reckless, or the mayor is simply choosing to ignore it in favor of USDA propaganda. The USDA’s Wildlife Services is a rogue killing machine; it killed 375,045 native animals in 2023 to accommodate commercial interests.
Hunting deer will not mean fewer car-deer collisions. Friends of Animals has surveyed state wildlife departments regarding incidents in which drivers hit deer. Our findings indicate that shooting deer exacerbates the movement of deer during the mating season. Notably, our study found a significant increase in the number of deer hit by cars during hunting season: October, November and December.
The executive director of the Missouri Insurance Information Service has urged drivers to be especially cautious during the hunting season, when people are “chasing deer out of the woods.”
And for Syracuse residents complaining deer nibble on flowers and plants in a gigantic Catholic cemetery or in their yards — they need to have more tolerance for wildlife residents. Calling in USDA gunners is overkill.
Gardeners and cemetery groundskeepers know that deer can be fenced out of areas if they’re growing plants preferred by deer. Or they can choose deer-resistant vegetation.
Not to mention, where are the studies that show a direct correlation between hunting deer and lowering the numbers of Lyme disease cases? There are studies that show the opposite — that ticks will look for other large hosts (deer don’t actually produce infected ticks) and be more likely to end up on humans if deer are reduced. A Penn State University study shows that deer exclusion in smaller areas is likely to amplify ticks and produce tick-borne disease hotspots where rodents, which produce infected ticks, are ubiquitous.
Similar research by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York found that white-footed mice are the most important hosts in producing infected ticks. Eastern chipmunks, short-tailed shrews and masked shrews also produce quite a few infected ticks.
Shame on Syracuse officials for perpetuating a deer smear campaign rather than helping disseminate information about how to peacefully coexist with wildlife in the city.
Priscilla Feral
President
Friends of Animals
Rowayton, Connecticut
Exposing the Big Game 