What are some logical suggestions for controlling the deer population?

Question

And how could the meat be put for good use to help the poor?

Answer 1

a natural way to control deer is to re introduce the natural preditor to the environment. This is normally wolves.

Answer 2

It takes a huge hunting effort and education to non hunters that deer are destroying the environment in many areas.

You can start with extended hunts seasons.  Earn a buck programs where you have to kill multiple does before you can shoot a buck.

Many hunters want the prize deer but one buck can fertilize many does and hunting bucks only accomplishes nothing.  

You also have to have alpha hunters.  Alpha hunters are those that hunt and actually kill deer.  We have had those that just go out to escape their wife and kids or whatever but at the end of the season accomplished nothing in the end.

A network can be set up where the food can be donated to food pantries but the deer still have to be processed somewhere and someone has to pay for it.

Answer 3

Get people to crawl around dressed as fierce wolves and get them to growl so the deers will be scared and will all run away. Why do you want to control their population? Maybe they are pondering the same question about us humans.... i'm scared now

Answer 4

Give hunting license and guns to all poor people.

Answer 5

One way is to reduce the number of those who would presume to control.

I mean, just which specie is needing for population control?

Haven't humans invaded far, far more "deer space" than have deer invaded "human space"?  By that standard, it would be far more logical to control human populations than demand control of deer populations.

It's a difficult problem to reply to - let alone solve - but some better solutions need to be found than ones continually based on the assumption that animal populations must (generally speaking) always assume the consequences and burdens of human overpopulation.

Answer 6

The best suggestion is hunting - there are MANY states which allow hunters to donate meat from their kills to local food shelters.

I know the CT DEP hunters donate all meat from culling of herds to local food shelters to feed the hungry and the homeless.

Answer 7

Hunting of course. Alaska has a program where it is possible to donate the meat to families in need.

Answer 8

Ruger 96/44

Browning BLR

Answer 9

go hunting. sell the meat. i no a lot of people who eat deer meat. they say it tastes good if u cook it right

Answer 10

This is one of those challenges facing conservation that is best handled with a multi-front approach.

The two links below have some great and unique solutions to keeping deer populations in check. Everything from culling herds via extended hunting seasons; habitat modification (this involves deterring males from approaching females during the rut, by reducing usable ground cover in some cases); re-introducing or bolstering natural deer predatory numbers, etc.

Shelters in Michigan and Washington both are happy to taken in donated venison. My understanding is this is most often used in stews.

When deer populations get out of control they put significant strain on the surrounding ecosystem. Another serious problem that happens when a herd exceeds the lands "carrying capacity" they start moving about more -- sending the deer - car incident numbers up rapidly. Some of these encounters are not only fatal for the deer, but car drivers and passengers as well.

Answer 11

In my area the deer were overtaking an island that is heavily populated and actually starving because of lack of food. The state had a sharp shooter come in and over the course of a week he culled the small ones out and the food was donated to food banks in the state. There were pros and cons to it but the deer had become so tame that people could hand feed them from their cars and the vegetation wasn't enough to sustain all of them throughout the winter months.