here - Satellite Beach

Internet – Newspaper Archives Searches
CALVIN R. PECK, JR.
(Articles are in reverse chronological order)
Tab 9
and 2008. The deer population was so excessive in 2000 more than 200 animals were removed
from the herd “and the population was still healthy,” Peck said.
Contraceptives in the general deer population have not proven effective, Norville said.
“It would only work in a closed setting, like a pen where animals are tightly controlled,” he said.
“In an open system where the deer fully move and go there is no delivery method that is effective
enough and proficient enough to deliver a contraceptive to each and every deer, and it is highly
expensive.”
The cost is about $500 per animal, Norville said.
Bald Head Island budgeted money in its current budget for deer culling, but won’t begin the
process until 2012, Peck said. The 2008 cull, which took about 90 deer, cost the village $35,000.
The company hired by the village used methods that are illegal for hunters.
“They use .22 caliber low-powered rifles on an elevated stand,” near a baited area, and track the
deer by night with spotlights, Peck said.
As in most communities, there is opposition to hunting of any type, and others who are
vehemently pro-hunting. Whether by deer contraception methods or by firearm, “We will have to
do it in January 2012,” Peck said of the herd cull.
If contraceptives are used, Bald Head Island would have to pay $75,000 a year for five years and
participate in a study being conducted by N.C. State, Peck said.
In the past, the village has donated venison from the deer culled from the herd to area food
banks. If the contraception method is used and an animal is taken by a hunter, the meat is unfit
for human consumption, Peck said. All does that are given the contraceptive will receive an ear
tag or other identifying marker, he said.
Bald Head island citizens will be surveyed to see what they think about the idea, Peck said.
Norville isn’t so sure it would work, even on Bald Head Island’s deer.
“They are excellent swimmers. They freely swim the Intracoastal Waterway and they find these
niches and new habitats,” he said. “The only things that work as far as abating the deer
population is hunting, sharpshooting and the use of deterrents and exclusionary devices like
fencing or netting.”
The state’s deer population is currently estimated at about 1.1 million animals. It’s estimated
only about 10,000 deer inhabited North Carolina in 1900. A restocking program involving 4,000
animals between 1940 and 1970 helped restore the population, according to the N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission.
Page 42 of 84