Politics & Government

City Council Votes to Move Forward With Deer Sterilization Program

The program, never before tried in Virginia, will be funded by a research grant.

Fairfax City Councilmembers voted 5-1 Tuesday night to move forward with participation in a grant-funded program to surgically sterilize deer within the city limits in an effort to help control the growing population.

READ: City to Consider Deer Sterilization Program to Control Overpopulation Problem

Efforts to cull the population by passing an ordinance that would allow limited deer hunting within the city ended in a deadlock this past summer. Since then, the City has been presented with the opportunity to participate in this program and have it funded by a university-based research group that is examining the success rate of using such methods to control growing deer populations in municipalities that choose not to use lethal methods.

The program will be led by Dr. Anthony DeNicola of White Buffalo Inc.

DeNicola, who explained he has led this program in other parts of the country with some success in the past few years, made a presentation to the Council Tuesday. He said he believes the program offers the City the best option for controlling what he believes could soon be an out-of-control deer problem in the near future if the City fails to take some sort of action.

In essence, DeNicola said that over a period of about nine days, a crew led by White Buffalo Inc. would drive through the City and shoot all female deer with darts that contain both a drug to disorient them as well as a tranquilizer, plus a tracking chip in case they flee. The crew would then capture the deer once they pass out.

He said the crew then transports the deer to a central location to perform the surgery, which consists of an ovariectomy. Post-surgery, the deer are released back into the area they came from.

He said the surgeries are all performed by licensed veterinarians and the deer are treated with the utmost care and humanity. He added that the deer are up and running around and feeding again by the very next day.

When questions were raised about the risks of a human eating tainted meat if a deer is killed soon after being shot with these darts, DeNicola said that it can take 60 days for the drugs to completely leave the deer's system, and that the deer's meat should not be eaten within that time period.

For that reason, he said all deer they treat are tagged with a marker that indicates that warning, and includes a phone number to call to check and see if the 60 days for that deer have passed and it is safe to eat her meat.

As for the program's success thus far, DeNicola said when compared to other deer population control methods, "Surgical sterilization isn’t a miracle worker, but we have 100-percent effectiveness, because we can engage every animal in a community, and over time, see a decline in population, without lethal means being necessary."

He said once the surgeries are complete, an area will usually see a 10- to 15-percent reduction in population annually.

As far as costs, DeNicola said they average about $1,000 per female deer, or $500 each if licensed veterinarians in the community are willing to volunteer their time. In this case, though, the fees will be covered by the research organization running the study, and the City will not have to use public funds.

As for Fairfax City's deer population, DeNicola said that based on deer scouting drives he has done with members of the police department recently, he estimated the city has somewhere between 50 to 100 deer currently, within its six square miles, of which around half are does.

"You're in a good place right now," he said, because that number is not yet at a crisis level, and if this program is conducted soon, he said he believes the city can prevent it from reaching a crisis level in the future.

"You don't need to immediately reduce your population—you just need to keep it from growing out of control in the future," he said. "With this, lethal means will hopefully not be needed in the future. This is proactive, versus crisis-based."

DeNicola said a deer sterilization program such as this has not been done in Virginia before.

"I'm excited. This is a first," Mayor Scott Silverthorne said, adding that he was glad the city was able to find a nonlethal means of tackling the problem. 

Councilmember Dan Drummond agreed and said he thought it was good for the city to be proactive as well as use nonlethal means, but asked how migration of deer from other nearby areas could possibly skew the effectiveness.

DeNicola said every female deer in the city would be sterilized and also tagged, allowing the city to easily be able to track in the future how many deer were migrating from other areas, since they would not have tags.

The councilmembers appeared to appreciate the ability to track migration.

Councilmember Steve Stombres also appreciated the idea, saying that he is always seeing deer in his neighborhood that will walk right up to him and his sons.

"And that's when you start to worry—it's unusual for deer in this dense of an area to be so comfortable approaching humans. That's when you know you have a problem," said DeNicola.

Councilmember David Meyer said he also appreciated the idea, explaining how, just over the Thanksgiving weekend, he hit a deer at 60 miles per hour on the freeway, with his whole family in the car.

Meyer said his car was totaled, and it seemed as though they just narrowly escaped injury or possibly death. He said that was the second time that has happened to his family in the past eight years.

The Council voted 5-1 to move forward. Councilmember Jeff Greenfield said he would have preferred to hear more feedback from VDGIF before deciding.

Once all the necessary permits and permissions are received from VDGIF, the city manager will begin drafting agreements with White Buffalo Inc. and the research program to begin.


TELL US - What do you think of the idea of the deer sterilization program? Tell us in the comments.


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