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pg. 2--Death On The Lawn Scare Strategies: Low-cost scare devices, used with repellents and fencing, foster deerless gardens. Visual and audio strategies include: Time- or motion-initiated strobe lights or sprinklers, glossy streamers and tin cans on trees or poles, scarecrows, "scare-eye" balloons, radios or recorded cries of distressed animals, commercial ultrasonic mechanisms. Chemical Repellents: Commercial repellents that render plants unappetizing are obtainable from nurseries, hardware stores, catalogs or the Internet. Home-crafted repellents from eggs, red-pepper sauce, garlic or soap also deter deer. Translocation and Immunocontraception: Ironically, several years ago MDC and Town and Country residents pioneered a live-trap and transfer program that tracked radio-collared deer at release sites as part of a costly translocation study. Immunocontraception, another state-supervised tool, triggers the immune system to inhibit pregnancy. The contraceptive darting of all males blocks fertilization in females and has demonstrated reduced birth rates in deer and wild horses. Male dominance order and subsequent mating are not interrupted; the females simply don't become pregnant. When humans delete deer, space opens for new deer or the remaining population rebounds due to food abundance. As long as developers encroach upon wildlife habitat, human/deer conflicts will remain unavoidable. "The only solution," says API's Jones, "is to plan communities with deer in mind and to tolerate the small inconveniences that come with the privilege of living in the midst of deer." Captive bolt euthanasia may seem like a tidy solution, but chances are the animal won't die immediately. Despite conjecture from conservation biologists or suburbanites who value plant life over sentient life, the fact remains: Metal rods, bullets and arrows hurt. There is always a humane alternative to slaughter. WHAT YOU CAN DO: 1.) Write to state conservation departments and private citizens or businesses to oppose their use of lethal wildlife control.2.) Contact these organizations for practical solutions to human/deer co-existence: Humane Society of the United States
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