The City of Montreal plans to hire marksmen to deal with the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the island’s east end on Tuesday.
Starting in the fall, the City of Montreal will begin decreasing the size of deer herds in east-end parks. The city said in a news release that there are currently 165 deer in parks with a capacity of 25, and the number is growing “at an accelerated rate.”
The expert committee that looked into the deer population has recommended that the city commission “professional shooters” to reduce the herds at Pointe-aux Prairies and Bois-d’Anjou parks.
“Reducing the deer population is not a decision that the City of Montreal is taking lightly,” said Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough mayor Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, who is responsible for large parks. “It is necessary, based on the recommendations received, and will be carried out with the greatest respect for the animals, limiting their suffering as much as possible. We don’t want to have to repeat this kind of intervention, and that’s why the Ville de Montréal is joining the PARCS en santé study, which will, among other things, provide a better understanding of deer movements – essential knowledge for assessing the feasibility of a sterilization strategy, in the light of evidence-based data.”
Biologists and veterinarians, in addition to university professors, made up the expert committee which made the recommendations.
“The scale of the effort required leads us to recommend the use of professional shooters to conduct an effective, safe operation that complies with guidelines on the care and use of wild animals,” said Laval University biology professor Jean-Pierre Tremblay. “The committee stresses the need for ongoing knowledge acquisition to foster the development of an integrated, sustainable intervention strategy.”
The city says the increased deer population has resulted in increased road accidents, a degraded ecosystem, disruption of food sources and a decline in bird populations, among other negative effects.
In addition, deer have brought with them increased black-legged ticks, which are known to spread Lyme disease.
The news release adds that alternative solutions were evaluated, such as relocating the deer. The committee did not recommend relocating the deer due to “numberous risks” of injury or complications that lead to deer deaths, the news release says.
The city said it plans to plant on 3.7 hectares of park space, establish enclosures, install signage and regularly count animals in the parks to protect the biodiversity in its parks.
The five-year, $2 million project will allow researchers to evaluate fertility control measures “to restrict population growth” and reduce the need for interventions.
The plan in Montreal comes after a legal saga in suburban Longueuil, where in October, the Court of Appeal finally rejected animal activists’ request to halt a deer cull at Michel-Chartrand Park. The court gave the City of Longueuil the green light to cull up to 100 white-tailed deer for population control.