We implore the City Council to vote against sending sharp shooters into city parks to cull the deer population. Baltimore does NOT need more bullets.

It is naive to think city parks can be “closed” at night. In fact, the people proposing this are not Baltimore natives, and they appear not to realize that many people remain in city parks after dark. In the small strip of woods in Stony Run, there is a regular resident. We can only imagine there are many more in the larger parks. Teens are also known to congregate in parks at night. Sending in people with guns is a disaster waiting to happen. Bullets can travel one to three miles. There is no way to guarantee where they will end up.

This is also a very ill conceived strategy for deer population control. After the initial cull, the deer population will bounce back stronger than ever, requiring another cull, more bullets, more chances for an accident.

The gun shots in the parks will send deer racing in all different directions, including into traffic, and posing yet another risk to residents.

The town of Hastings-on-Hudson was presented with a similar plan. Instead of using guns, the town worked with Tufts University and the Humane Society on cruelty-free deer control, which drastically reduced deer birth rates. High school students partnered with researchers to tag and track the deer. This is not an expensive project—after five years the total costs were below $75,000, far less than the budget for a single year of deer culling.

Something like this could be a life-changing experience for Baltimore City students, to help them learn about the wildlife around them, how to look for innovative solutions, and to respond with compassion whenever possible. We have so much talent in this city, so much creativity, we could come up with a plan that would benefit humans and wildlife, and serve as a model for cities everywhere.

It is our hope that the current proposal could at least be delayed until other options can be explored.