Take Action! Save the Deer of Cayuga Heights

Note: This post has been edited slightly from the original. I initially referred to James as a resident of Cayuga Heights when he is actually a resident of the larger community of Ithaca (of which Cayuga Heights is a part). My apologies for the error.

Inhumane, unnecessary deer-killing programs are in place or under consideration all across this country. But there are a couple in particular that I'm going to write about in the coming days, including, in this post, a proposed plan in Cayuga Heights, NY.

In the last couple days, some of you have surely noticed the petition on this site asking you to speak out against a terrible deer-killing plan in the village of Cayuga Heights in Ithaca, NY--and against the silencing of public comment by the village trustees, in the face of public opposition to the plan. The action summary explains that the reason so many deer are slated to be killed and the survivors traumatized and controlled is that "these human-habituated animals’ appetite for tulips, heirloom tomatoes, and ornamental shrubbery has, in the minds of the current mayor and trustees, created a situation so dire and unacceptable, that action of the most extreme sort is not only justified, but urgently required":

The first phase of their plan involves capturing 30-60 female deer, surgically sterilizing them, then puncturing their ears with numbered tags and encumbering their necks with radio collars. These are the "lucky" individuals. The intended fate of every other deer in Cayuga Heights, including pregnant does and fawns, is to be shot dead at bait sites at undisclosed locations and times. This annually performed massacre will be carried out by out-of-town contractors who earn their living exterminating wildlife. . . .

Year after year, deer in and around Cayuga Heights will be lured by piles of corn into the kill zone, and those marked for survival will watch as their herd mates are brutally killed right in front of them. Were such a sadistic policy to be carried out against dogs or cats, or horses, an outraged crowd would spontaneously rise up to stop it. But the deer, ironically, because they live free of direct human control and are no individual's private property, are somehow seen as unworthy of moral consideration.

The plan is outrageous and cruel, especially when, as the deer's defenders note, many residents of this area have proven it is possible to, "through wise plant choices, and skillful use of fencing and deer repellents, enjoy beautiful gardens without causing harm to anyone." The deer need not be killed and traumatized. And indeed, nearby Ithaca resident James LaVeck explains that despite arguments to the contrary, evidence suggests that the deer population has stayed within the same range for a decade or more. That killing should be the default option here is absurd. (And if James's name and the name on the petition--Jenny Stein--sound familiar, it's because James and Jenny are well-known, effective, dedicated animal advocates on many fronts, including as the filmmakers behind Peaceable Kingdom and The Witness.)

But the residents of Cayuga Heights and the larger Ithaca community have been stripped of their right to speak up against the plan, explains James:

The deer killing proposal was offered up July, after months of endless deer committee meetings and supposed in-depth “study.” Yet the document offers almost no facts or logic to justify its drastic conclusions. And after allowing members of the public just 51 minutes to ask questions or comment at just one meeting, during which many important criticisms were raised (people spoke two to one against the killing plan), the trustees have simply barred public comment. So the collective intelligence of our community will never be really brought to bear on the most important questions of all, what the problem really is, what specifically they propose to do about it and why, how success will be measured, and what better alternatives might exist.

All of these deer are slated to be gunned down or subjected to ear tags and radio collars for life--in other words, this is no small matter--yet public input has been summarily banned for precisely the period during which the decision will be made. And this ill-conceived plan, if it goes forward, has the potential to spread to other communities as well:

The involvement of Paul Curtis, a Cornell University researcher, means that this macabre “experiment” will be written up and published, and could well become a template used in communities nationally. In this case, surgically sterilizing a small percentage of animals becomes a kind of fig leaf for just killing the overwhelming majority, year after year. In fact, the level of killing, combined with the sterilization of the small percentage of remaining animals, makes the whole thing look a lot like a backdoor extermination plan.

State conservation and wildlife agencies are no help in these situations because, as James astutely points out, "they have a vested interest in maintaining the view that free living animals are not individuals with a right to respect, but rather an element of a collective resource to be 'managed' and exploited for fun and profit." These agencies--including New York's Department of Environmental Conservation--don't want to see the success of violence-free, no-kill plans (and the end, for example, to payments for hunting licenses).

So with certainly no help on the way from the state, and with the mayor and trustees of Cayuga Heights refusing to listen to concerned residents, it's time for animal advocates from all communities to speak up and oppose the Cayuga Heights plan and the trustees' ban on public comment and refusal to consider humane alternatives. We need to tell them that such a violent, unwarranted substitute for a real solution is no more acceptable for the deer of Cayuga Heights than it would be for the animals in our own communities.

The trustees could vote on the plan as early as this coming Monday. So please sign the petition, and before you send it, also copy and paste the text of the letter into a separate e-mail, so that you can send the message directly to additional trustees beyond those targeted in the petition. You may also learn far more about this issue at CayugaDeer.org and find additional ways to take action through the Cayuga Deer group's Conscience Calling Card pages.

And though this isn't mentioned in the petition, I'll go ahead and make the recommendation anyway: you can also leave phone messages for the trustees and mayor at (607) 257-1238. However, if you do choose to call, please be polite, respectful, and brief. If your anger is bubbling over such that you don't think you can be polite, please consider sticking to the e-mail petition. Anger and frustration are understandable, but for the animals' sake, we don't want to give the people whose minds we're trying to change an excuse to dismiss us.

Photos courtesy CayugaDeer.org