International outcry

Why This Is Important

The towns of Cranbrook, Kimberley, and Invermere all have plans to kill their local populations of deer.
The BC government have recently issued three permits to kill up to 225 deer in Cranbrook, Kimberly and Invermere. Grand Forks is also considering killing deer.
The following link is to a video of the net and bolt method that many are using, as you can see it is clearly very stressful for the animals as they are in a state of high panic, they break limbs and hurt themselves in a desperate attempt to escape. Also as you can see the bolt method of killing is difficult to administer to such highly stressed animals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neOr8F8c6as
Any method that involves netting or trapping (such as with the clover trap) of the animals will cause great distress, separate mothers from nursing fawns and cause serious injuries.
“This is a very inhumane way to rid yourselves of excess deer because of the extreme fright experienced by the deer and because the captured bolt does not effect a clean kill when the animal’s head is not immobilized. The misplaced bolt does not always kill but merely wounds the deer making repeated attempts necessary to kill the struggling animals.” Peggy W. Larson, DVM, MS, JD (Animal Law and Veterinary Medicine):
The main ‘problem’ that is attributed to the deer is that they stray on to gardens.
Those who find deer unsightly can use any of the hundreds of humane methods of deterring deer from urban areas and gardens that don’t involve killing them. And there are many cheap and simple repellent powders and devices that will keep deer away, there really is no need to kill deer.
http://www.lifeforcefoundation.org/files/HumaneAlternativesDeer.pdf
The problem has been caused by lethal persecution (hunting, baiting, trapping, etc) of the deer in the first place. The deer have sought refuge in residential areas to escape persecution in their original habitat. The ‘problem’ was self created. If refuges were created for the deer adjacent the urban areas then the deer would rarely stray. Persecuting the deer only encourages them to move to other areas making it the next towns problem, they then use lethal methods and the problem returns to the original town, its an endless cycle that will not conclude (which is very convenient for those selling lethal services). The lethal methods never clear an entire population, and any vacant areas will only be reoccupied by deer seeking refuge from persecution.
Car collisions with deer are also caused by deer fleeing from persecution, again there are hundreds of easy, solutions such as reflectors, high fencing, warning signs, and speed limits in deer prone areas, and effective high tech methods such as the Roadside Animal Detection System (RADS), it uses radio sensors to detect large animals approaching a roadway. If an animal gets too near a road, the sensor activates a warning signal, alerting drivers to be cautious and slow down. Studies with it in Switzerland found that such animal detection systems produced a reduction in collisions of up to 82 percent.
Most significantly Culling deer by any method perpetuates the kill-accelerated reproduction cycle, all it does is encourage the remaining deer to breed at a higher rate, it is simple ecology that should have been addressed, all populations of animals are kept in check by competition for resources, increased predation only causes them to breed more and/or re-locate. If you check the breeding rate figures in any area that is heavily hunted you will find that the breeding rate has increased dramatically in the target animals.
Perhaps councillors should spend more time studying ecology and less time being persuaded by nefarious companies to part with tax payers money to kill deer. If there is any problem it has been caused by destruction of the deer’s natural habitat and increased persecution forcing the animals to seek refuge in the urban environment.
Many local residents have voiced their opposition to the cull and many questions have been raised that have not been addressed. Local residents point out that the deer have always been in these areas so why is there the urgency to kill them now?
The Vancouver-based ecology organization, Lifeforce, has offered to supply all the information and expertise needed to deal with the situation with out killing the deer yet none of the councils have replied to their offer. http://www.lifeforcefoundation.org/
The permits have already been issued and some deer have already been killed, many using these inhumane and barbaric methods. So far 25 deer have been killed in Cranbrook, 57 in Kimberly and Inveremere is set to start killing in February.
Local people have voiced their dismay and have been ignored and their taxes have still been squandered on this senseless killing.
We the undersigned pledge not to visit, or use goods or services from any of these areas that use and promote cruel and lethal control of deer.
Furthermore we request that the town councils immediately cease use of these barbaric and extremely archaic methods of killing the deer. We also ask that the government and councils take counsel from Lifeforce on how to implement humane, no kill, methods of dealing with the ‘problem’ and to work with local people who have volunteered to assist with non lethal remedies to the situation.
Senselessly killing defenceless animals when you do not need to is degenerate and shameful behaviour. Any civilised culture will refrain from mindless violence, and will seek to set a good example. Wildlife such as deer are good for tourism, perhaps set areas aside where people can come and safely feed the deer and photograph them thus bringing in more tourists rather than implementing a barbaric slaughter that has bought about the threat of a tourism boycott.