Westchester Mayor Proposes Injecting Deer With Birth Control
HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The mayor of a Westchester County town has proposed a plan to inject deer with birth control, in an effort to reduce their population.
Peter Swiderski, mayor of Hastings-on-Hudson, told the New York Times he plans to submit a formal application within a month to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Dr. Allen Rutberg, director of the Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy, said the vaccine can control the population using the animal's immune system to prevent fertilization.
Rutberg said the deer need to be tranquilized, tagged and injected once every two years.
Hastings-on-Hudson is about 2 square miles and can claim about 70 to 120 deer there -- far more than what is considered tolerable.
Swiderski told the newspaper that hunting is not realistic given the density of the town, and residents reacted negatively to the idea of a "captive" bolt that is used for stunning or killing animals in slaughterhouses.
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