City not going to war against 'lovely, graceful' deer

Deer roaming through the city of Charlottesville can breathe easy after the City Council made clear Tuesday that there will be no sharpshooting or urban archery program in the immediate future.

“It should be clear to our audience that the city is not interested in using lethal means,” Mayor Satyendra Huja said after a discussion of deer management options at Tuesday’s meeting.

The councilors didn’t vote but agreed unanimously that they’re not ready to allow deer hunts within city limits just yet.

After hearing concerns about deer overpopulation from some in the neighborhoods north of downtown, councilors had asked City Hall to look into possible remedies. A memo prepared by city staff suggested sharpshooting or urban archery as the most effective way to deal with deer issues such as vehicle collisions and garden damage, but acknowledged that the issue was sure to spark controversy.

Instead of hunting, councilors opted to move forward with efforts to educate residents about non-lethal ways to reduce conflict with deer. The council also suggested that City Hall conduct further research to determine how many deer might be in the city and gauge public opinion about disposing of them lethally.

“We don’t want to jump to doing anything lethal,” Councilor Kathy Galvin said. “We want to do surveys and we want to educate.”

Councilor Dede Smith said officials had received an outpouring of emails on the deer issue.

“If we didn’t know there was opposition to shooting deer, we do now,” Smith said.

Councilor Kristin Szakos said she’s no fan of shooting deer, but she asked that the Public Works Department start keeping track of how many dead deer are picked up from roadsides.

“I live on the bypass and it breaks my heart when I see these deer get hit,” Szakos said. “We talk about humane methods… getting hit by a car on the bypass is probably one of the least humane methods of extermination. We can hear them scream from my house.”

The educational aspects included in the city memo include not feeding the deer, proper fencing and the use of unpalatable plants, repellants, harassment techniques and dogs.

During the public comment period, a number of people spoke out against using lethal methods.

Laura Donahue, the Virginia state director of The Humane Society of the United States, urged councilors to look at contraceptive darting and improving driver awareness.

“It is not a deer numbers problem,” Donahue said. “It is solving the conflict that should be the focus.”

Melinda Baumann, a resident of the Locust Grove neighborhood, said she enjoys seeing deer walk through her yard, and she considers them “lovely, graceful residents of the neighborhood.”

“One of the many reasons I live in the city is I don’t want hunters on or near my property,” Baumann said. “We all choose to live in the city. We all choose, therefore, to co-exist with deer. In Locust Grove, that is the only deer management program we need.”