Ann Arbor Considers Killing Some Deer In City
ANN ARBOR (WWJ/AP) - Ann Arbor plans to consider efforts to control the city's deer population that could include killing some of the animals or sterilization.
The City Council voted Monday night to direct the city administrator to evaluate Ann Arbor's options and report back by the end of July.
Council member Stephen Kunselman said efforts are more likely to involve hunting and killing deer, possibly through an organized hunt. Kunselman said hunters likely would volunteer and the city doesn't need to spend too much time studying the issue.
"We have to face the fact that we are going to be culling the herd," Kunselman told the Ann Arbor News. "And the best way to cull the herd is with bow and arrow, with hunters up in tree stands pointing down so that arrows don't go off far away in the distances and cause any fear."
Such hunts can be an emotional issue. Council member Chuck Warpehoski said a "difficult debate" is likely, although he expects a management plan to be approved. Similar efforts to cull the deer population have taken place in other Michigan communities.
Ann Arbor's increasing urban deer population is largely based on anecdotal perceptions. Council members said they relied on an aerial deer survey of the Marshall Nature Area in northeast Ann Arbor, taken in the winter of 2013, that indicated a density of 76 deer per square-mile.
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