… Solon employed professional sharpshooters for four years to thin its herds. It was costly at $345 to $570 per deer…
…An initiative headed for the town's ballot this November, organized by a vocal national activist group*, calls for a total repeal of Solon's culling ordinance…
…The Metroparks spent nearly half a million dollars over five years experimenting with a contraceptive vaccine but concluded it was not effective enough and it was difficult to deliver to free-ranging herds in large numbers.
Nonsense, says Lane Ferrante, Ohio state director of the League of Humane Voters. Her organization is largely responsible for this November's "Solon Deer Preservation Act" — the ballot initiative against lethal deer culling in Solon — and an initiative that repealed Broadview Heights' culling ordinance last year. She thinks Ohio should pursue deer birth-control methods and calls Cleveland Metroparks' concern about over-browsed vegetation threatening other wildlife habitats "a bunch of propaganda."
Ferrante doesn't believe there's an overpopulation problem. At the same time, she insists that deer culling results in a "rebound effect" that actually increases herd sizes…
…"Urban hunting is about backroom deals between hunters and the Department of Wildlife aided by legislators," says Ferrante…
…Ferrante's group was Broadview Heights Mayor Samuel Alai's worst nightmare…
