Bowsite.com

Syracuse Deer Management

So I saw on the news this morning that Syracuse was going to use gov. sharpshooters to reduce the deer population. Their going to pay God knows how much for something archers would do for free. Chances are the carcasses will be disposed of rather that go on the dinner table for fear the shell fragments will taint the meat............

Nothing shocks me anymore in NYS!

"Chances are the carcasses will be disposed of" - NO. Chances are that every deer harvested will be donated to the Venison Donation Coalition or similar organization and the meat will end up in a local food bank. Chances are that the culling program will be using lead free ammunition and baited areas and shooting at night to most efficiently get the numbers they want. Chances are the culling will require a DEC permit which will require the meat to be donated. Read the supporting link, especially page 18-19 for more on the DEC culling program guidelines.

I would expect that DEC presented the city with all of the options and the politics determined it was easiest (not cheapest) to do a cull instead of all of the hoops and protests that would come with trying to allow hunting within city limits. It is a shame, because in some urban areas it would seem an ideal place to allow bow and crossbow hunting to meet objectives.

It’s been happening all over the North East over the last decade or so. Many towns and cities sell out because of the reasons Eric mentioned. These “professionals “ aren’t cheap either and most of the time they come up short of the goal set forth before the hunt. Usually because the projected deer numbers seem to be inflated by those that forecast such things. One of the more popular “professional” hunting groups is called White Buffalo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that group hit the goal they were contracted to do. And they certainly don’t give back any money

Bowhunting programs have proven to be incredibly effective.... even brought in where sharp shooters have failed to reach objectives. They cost taxpayers virtually nothing as there is usually a small fee for hunters to cover expenses.

The shooters for hire are known to tell Town Leaders that hunters can't get the numbers down to where they want them. This gets them big dollar contracts for culling or vasectomy programs, like in Staten Island. When big dollars (sometimes seven figures) are at play, the Biologists have no qualms about pretending that Hunters aren't effective.

We've seen it in CT already. Stand back and watch, these guys have ready excuses for when they can't perform as advertised. One of them is likely to be along any minute to tell me how little I know about hunting (and everything else), and why since he has a degree in this stuff he's so much smarter than all of us.

Register here to reply to this topic