The Cuyahoga County Mayors and City Managers Association (the "Association") formed a subcommittee pressuring the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODOW) to "fix" the deer "problem" it has caused. But its officers, as predicted, are calling for lethal measures. That's because the Assn. is corrupt and biased, with presiding officer/Independence Mayor Gregory Kurtz who is hunter-friendly, plus a hunter who also happens to be Broadview Heights Mayor Sam Alai, now fear-mongering about deer-vehicle accidents (numerous dispatch records for these communities consistently reveal NO human injuries and no threats to public safety) while attempting to re-engage his community in a bow hunting program that voters already repealed through a ballot measure.

Sadly, now North Royalton Mayor Bob Stefanik, who formed the Association subcommittee to address the deer situation and who claimed a preference for non-lethal, is citing incorrect data about deer-vehicle crashes -- for which this writer just concluded an eight-year analysis and found DECREASES. Stefanik also claims there are "exploding" deer populations when he knows deer cannot biologically out-reproduce their habitats, and when he knows that it's the ODOW's fault for deliberately maintaining stable populations through Compensatory Rebound Effect for profit -- the very basis of his argument. This is fallacious reasoning.

HUNTERS IN POLITICIANS' GUISE: While it is agreed the the ODOW deliberately keeps a high number of large targets (deer) for profit and to satisfy its hunting constituency, it is a fact that ALL lethal methods result in rebound, making this Assn's demand an obvious ploy to expand suburban hunting in this area, while duping the majority of Public Trust Stakeholders of wildlife.

OPEN PUBLIC RECORDS SHOW NO SAFETY ISSUES: This writer conducted numerous deer-vehicle crash (DVC) reports over an eight-year span for the various communities covered by the Assn., and found NO human injuries or fatalities, very little or no damage to vehicles, and even erroneous dispatch calls. There has been an overall DECREASE in DVCs.

LYNCH-MOB MENTALITY GARDENERS. Impatient suburban gardeners are collectively pressuring city officials to "do something" because of their hostas and roses, while intimidating the majority of stakeholders who know better, and who want more effective, non-lethal solutions.

MORE EFFECTIVE, PREFERRED, AFFORDABLE METHODS (NOT sterilization, a barbaric measure that leaves death, high infection and stillbirth rates in its wake): The preferred method of "control" is allowing biological carrying capacity to prevail. Deer would continue to exist at the current herd size, right where it was prior to over-hunting, followed by near-extirpation in Ohio around 1950.

Since 1950, when ODOW reintroduced deer for "sport" hunting, the herd has rebounded, and is deliberately kept stable through ODOW-issued hunting and nuisance permits. ODOW, as well as national and various metropark officials/biologists, no longer deny rebound or the profit machine.

It's time for a 21st century approach to wildlife management.

The second choice is PZP birth control -- not a hormone but a protein -- currently used in Michigan and New York. PZP boasts a 90% efficacy first year, 70% 2nd year, 50% third year and deer only live average 7 years. The ODOW refuses this highly effective and proven affordable birth control -- in urban, suburban, rural areas and national and metro parks, which is to say everywhere, claiming that "tainted" deer may cross boundaries and get "harvested" even though they know PZP is a protein and not a hormone -- because birth control would indeed cause a decrease in the populations. Depending on the number of deer permits issued per year, ODOW total revenue vacillates between 50 and 65% -- all from deer hunting and nuisance permits.