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Dear Friend,

We are the Coalition to Save Catalina Island Deer — residents, visitors, and wildlife advocates who believe Catalina’s mule deer deserve protection, not extermination.

Once again, the Catalina Island Conservancy is moving forward with plans to eradicate every mule deer on the island, this time under a Restoration Management Permit (RMP) from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The RMP is a fast-track process that allows the Conservancy to bypass public environmental review under CEQA and limits genuine community involvement.

Despite public assurances that aerial sharpshooting was “off the table,” the Conservancy’s RMP application explicitly requests authorization to use “aerial platforms for detection, pursuit, and dispatch” — meaning helicopter-assisted killing. The permit would also allow net guns, drop nets, and drive nets to entangle and trap deer, as well as the use of trained dogs to chase, corner, and flush out deer so that they can be “dispatched” by the Conservancy’s butchers, White Buffalo, Inc.

The operation would last for at least five years and would extend into Avalon city limits, in direct violation of a City ordinance expressly prohibiting these activities in Avalon. 

In short: the Conservancy’s new “restoration” plan repackages the same aerial and ground-based killing tactics that the public overwhelmingly rejected before.

When the Conservancy’s earlier Scientific Collecting Permit was challenged in 2023, we stopped it. Thousands of Californians stood together, forcing the withdrawal of that permit and exposing the flaws in their science and process. Now, the Conservancy has rebranded the same lethal campaign — peddling it with fear-mongering, weak science, paid lobbyists, and a misleading public-relations push.

We vehemently oppose this plan because:

• Catalina’s deer are part of the island’s cultural and scenic heritage. They have lived on the island for nearly a century — part of the fabric of this special place, cherished by residents and millions of visitors.
• The Conservancy has once again failed to hold a genuine public process. Simply informing residents of a predetermined plan is not engagement.
• The proposed methods are cruel and unnecessary, inflicting immense suffering on these cherished animals.
• Alternatives exist. Hunting, sterilization, and relocation deserve real investment and public input.
• Science doesn’t justify this slaughter. Independent ecologists reviewing the Conservancy’s own data found no credible evidence that deer eradication is the only path to ecological recovery.
• Catalina Island’s deer belong to all Californians. We will not stand by while this precious wildlife resource is destroyed behind closed doors.

Join us — sign, share, and stay connected. Together, we can protect the island’s deer and hold the Conservancy accountable to humane, transparent, and science-based stewardship.

Sincerely yours,

The Coalition Against the Slaughter of Catalina Deer