To kill or to sterilize

During Tuesday night's workshop meeting, the Green River City Council was presented with three possible options it could pursue in dealing with the deer living in the city.

One method the city could use involves shooting darts at female deer that have a temporary sterilizing agent loaded onto them. Police Chief and Interim City Administrator Chris Steffen said one of the benefits of darting deer is if the deer are darted twice, it doesn't harm them. Initially, he said deer would need to be shot twice with the sterilizing darts within the year, with only one application needed as a booster during following years. Steffen said one of the major drawbacks to using the darts is that animal rights activists use evidence of such programs to campaign against hunting, saying the darting procedure is more humane than allowing the harvest of game animals. Also, the program couldn't be initiated by the city because it would need the approval of Wyoming Department of Game and Fish officials in Cheyenne.

"I don't think this would work," Steffen told the council.

Other considerations against a darting program are that if some of the deer aren't darted every year, they'll be able to reproduce again as well as the fact the program wouldn't have an immediate impact on the population.

Mayor Hank Castillon also disagreed with the darting proposal, saying the Bureau of Land Management attempted a similar program to manage wild horse populations. According to Castillon, a problem developed where the BLM would have difficulty tracking which mares were darted yearly as well as how to identify them after their initial darting.

A second option involves actively killing a select number of females each year, similar to other culling programs initiated by Wyoming cities dealing with deer problems. Steffen said the city would need to complete a study to identify the number of deer living in Green River and would have to receive approval from the game and fish department to initiate the program. He said the city already meets one of the department's requirements by having an ordinance prohibiting deer feeding within city limits. He also said a culling program would have to take place during the late fall period. Deer killed in the program would have to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease before their meat can be processed as well.

Game and fish biologist Patrick Burke said some of the deer in town have Chronic Wasting Disease, which would make drugging the animals and relocating them to other locations risky to populations free of the disease. Also, the city's deer would not be able to survive in their natural environment because deer learn migration routes and dietary habits while they're fawns. Adult deer relocated to more natural habitats would stave. Also, Burke said the presence of mountain lions and other predators typically known for feeding on deer hasn't been confirmed. He said some sightings have occurred on the outskirts of the city, but believes those reports involve mountain lions passing by. He said evidence of deer predation hasn't been reported in Green River.

"If (mountain lions) are killing deer in town, it's hard to miss that," Burke said.

Steffen said if the program was something the city wanted to do, he strongly recommended it being handled through the police department. The city would also have to establish a policy regarding deer culling and fund overtime for officers tasked with culling deer. Steffen also said the program isn't like hunting within city limits, saying the practice is getting up close to the animal to kill it.

Multiple Green River council members spoke against actively culling deer. Councilwoman Lisa Maes opposes a culling program. Maes also sat on the deer working group and said the populations won't explode within the city because the fawn mortality rate is very high. She opposes the culling program because giving officers rifles to kill the deer can result in the city being liable if something goes wrong. Maes said she would support a sterilization program if the city needed to deal with the deer.

Councilman Brett Stokes also supports sterilization over culling, saying the culling program is a horrible idea.

A third option for the city is to do nothing to the deer themselves and work toward educating residents about how to prevent deer from wandering through and feeding off of residential property. Councilman Ted Barney and Castillon voiced for support this approach. Barney, like Maes, believes the city expanded into deer habitat and said deer have been in Green River for the 54 years he's been alive.

"I'm for option three, that's where my opinion is," Barney said. "This is the state of Wyoming. I live here and the deer have lived here longer than I have."

Castillon also spoke against the culling program because he, like Maes, believes it would result in putting public employees in a predicament.

"You never know what will happen," he said.