Press Releases

Do you want YOUR tax dollars used for

PRIVATE DEER MANAGEMENT?

Mary McNett, former deer management point person responded to, “repeated requests from residents asking to have deer removal addressed on their properties”. (Minutes of the Township Committee meeting, Nov. 29, 2005)

Tim Gordon, Business Administrator, “The best way to gauge if the (Net & Bolt) program has been successful will be to ask the property owners…” (The Item, Mar. 15, 2007)

Sure sounds like a service to

private homeowners!

Documents surrendered via the Open Public Records Act reveal:

Taxpayers paid $891.72 to Net, Bolt and remove

each deer from private residential properties

(includes: consultations, hourly fees, lodging, meals, travel, butchering)

The Div. of Fish & Wildlife reported remaining deer in Millburn reproduce at the accelerated rate of 36% annually. Deer slaughter is an expensive and losing proposition for taxpayers and the residents who have an intolerance of wildlife, yet refuse to pay to protect their own properties.

If you object to the use of your tax dollars for removal of deer from private properties because it is inhumane, ineffective, or grossly unfair to taxpayers, write to:

Netandboltcruelty@verizon.net

Tax deductible donations welcome:

HUMANE Millburn, PO Box 121, Millburn NJ 07041

Paid for by:

HUMANE Millburn

a campaign of the Coalition For Animals

PO Box 611, Somerville, NJ 08876

Martine Donofrio recently reported a problem with the Natures Technology’s apparatus. Natures Technology was introduced by township committeewoman, Ellen Steinberg, as a humane alternative to net & bolt to prevent deer-damage to landscaping. Ms Donofrio is a pro-kill proponent and condones the heinous method of netting & bolting deer.

Nine professional organizations and individuals, including NJ’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty towards Animals, hold the position that netting and bolting deer is inhumane and unacceptable for wildlife management. Yet the township committee has been indifferent to those claims.

Six years of statistics on Millburn’s deer management program has proved how ineffective culling has been. Net & bolt will never resolve the issue of pocket deer in residential areas (where firearms cannot be used). Here is why:

- Residual deer will remain in their home territory and continue to visit those properties hostile to them, reinforced by the long-term baiting.

- Deer will continue to forage on unprotected landscaping and drop feces where properties aren’t contained.

Continued sharpshooting will create new pockets. In hunted areas, deer refuge seek and leave their home range to escape gunfire. South Mountain did not have pocket deer until Millburn had begun to cull. Summit reported having no deer problems until Millburn began to cull. Millburn’s deer population decreased, but deer were displaced into new areas and accelerated reproduction continued. Intolerant residents will be frustrated to continually find themselves back to square one. Some people refuse to accept that deer are now a fact of life, and that we must adapt ourselves to their unwanted effects.

The division of fish & wildlife reports that NJ has approximately 250,000 deer. However, in just the past six years, recreational hunters eliminated 397,576 deer, an annual average of 66,262 per year (www.njfishandwildlife.com/dersum01.htm). This did not even include the farmer depredation and sharpshooting kills. Yet the deer population replenishes as quickly as reduced. Hunting creates a vacuum that accelerates deer proliferation via healthier does capable of multiple estrous and multiple births.

Princeton has completed the sixth year of its five year deer management program and already plans for a seventh year and eight year. Princeton has been netting & bolting deer in the same locations, proving that it cannot adequately eliminate or reduce deer.

Deer Management, Inc. reports reveal that Millburn’s pregnant does are twinning at the rate of 92%. According to aerial surveys, in March 2005, Millburn had 62 deer, but by March 2006, the herds more than doubled to 139. Meanwhile, in four of the past six years, auto-deer collisions increased from preculling times. Deer management methodology directed to reduce deer is no viable management program.

The good news is that the deer contraceptive, GonaCon (GnRH) will soon enter the open market. Submitted to the EPA this summer by the US Dept. of Agriculture- Wildlife Sciences, it is anticipated that approval will be granted in 2007. Deer contraception will stabilize deer populations because when fewer deer in the habitat become heavier, healthier and better nourished they cannot reproduce. It will be cost-effective because it will eliminate the repeated expensive killings resulting from the persistent multiple-births.

Deer contraception, along with other common sense, practical and nonlethal methods to control the effects of the deer, is how Millburn will ultimately achieve success in its deer management program.