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The Truth about Fish and Wildlife It's a matter of deer biology, something the folks at F&W know very well. Simply put, when a large number of deer removed from a herd, competition for food, water, space and breeding opportunities is reduced. The reaction of the herd to a sudden kill is increased breeding. With plenty of food to go around, more females are likely to become pregnant and twin and triplet births often occur.
So you see, F&W, through their "hunting management," has been increasing NJ's deer population. Why would they do this? Because their salaries and benefits (almost $10.5 million in 1999) are paid for by the sale of hunting, trapping and fishing licenses. This arrangement can be likened to a business (F&W) providing a product (hunting) for their paying customers (hunters). And the non-hunting public of NJ (98.6%) historically has had virtually no say in how this state agency is run and what happens to wildlife in New Jersey. Recently, with the passage of Public Law 2000, Chapter 46 (see sidebar for history), New Jersey's deer killing programs have reached a new low. P.L. 2000, Chapter 46 provided for the expansion of F&W's previous Community-Based Deer Management Programs by allowing the use of rifles with silencers, shooting across roadways, shooting from vehicles and shooting at night, all of which had been illegal prior to the enactment of P.L. 2000, Chapter 46. First it was mercenaries such as White Buffalo (a deer killing business) who come into town, set out bait sites and lie in wait in darkness to kill with high-powered rifles equipped with silencers. And most recently, as carried out in Princeton, the deer were subjected to horrific killing via net and bolt. In this method, as the deer peacefully eat at bait sites, a net is dropped over them, trapping them below. The deer flail frantically in confusion and fear trying to escape the net! The killers rush in and descend upon the trapped and frightened deer. They wrestle each animal into submission, aim a 4" retractable metal bolt at one deer's brain, and fire away. The others in the net continue their efforts to flee as one by one each is fatally pierced with a bolt! The killing device described above is known as a captive bolt pistol and ITS USE IN NEW JERSEY IS ILLEGAL. However, that didn't bother Princeton Township (who applied for the permit to kill), the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife (who issued the permit for this type of killing), the courts (who denied a temporary restraining order to stop the killing) or our state legislators and governor (who used politics and "home rule" as excuses not to act). This is what New Jersey has "evolved" to in the world of wildlife management. It's barbaric, immoral and a travesty. It's time we put a stop to it! The first of many steps needed to attain a more progressive non-lethal wildlife state agency is to work for the repeal of Public Law 2000, Chapter 46. What P.L. 2000, Chapter 46 and F&W's Community-Based Deer Management Program will NOT do:
A University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey study showed that the white-footed mouse, NOT THE DEER, is the primary species responsible for the spread of the disease because they are a reservoir for the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. The NJ Department of Health concurred.
Automobile insurance industry surveys report a five-fold increase in vehicle-deer strikes and collisions brought about by hunting. State Farm points to hunting as a major reason for seasonal upswings in vehicle/deer collisions.
Deer are often blamed for reduction in the understory and biodiversity, but it is deer management practices, like clear-cutting or planting hundreds of thousands of acres of deer-preferred crops, that reduces diversity and the understory. As of March 2002, NJ F&W has started clear-cutting up to 400 acres of forest in Bukshutem Wildlife Management Area in southern New Jersey in order to plant food for deer.
Consider these two simple questions: If hunting works, why are more deer being killed than ever before and why is the overall deer population increasing? How is it that any thinking person can find that hunting is the means to reduce whitetail deer populations after looking at F&W’s own statistics listed to the right? What P. L. 2000, Chapter 46 and F&W's Community-Based Deer Management Program WILL do: It will increase the number of deer, it will increase the incidence of vehicle/deer collisions, it will increase the number of deer killed and it will decrease the safety of our neighborhoods and parks, even sanctuaries, by allowing killing day and night, shooting from vehicles and across public roads, spotlighting deer, and using high-powered rifles equipped with silencers.
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