The deer population at Valley Forge National Historic Park is under fire, as the park officials plan to kill more than a 1,000 Bambis in the next four years.
Officials may begin shooting the resident deer as early as November, hoping to get the population down to 175, from the current 1,277 that are wandering around the property chewing up plant life and being overall destructive, reports the Inquirer.
Among the opponents to this method of deer population control, is Priscilla Cohn, a Pennsylvania State University professor emerita who runs a wildlife group called Pity Not Cruelty. Cohn offered to pay $125,000 for fences and contraceptives for the female deer.
But park officials announced Monday that the deer birth control plan was not enough and far too limited, requiring more resources than Cohn’s proposal.
"We've done a good and honest job of evaluating all the alternatives, based on the best available science," said Kristina Heister, the park's natural resource manager.
Officials say that the destruction to the park’s vegetation has been so extreme, the deer have already wiped out the “the forest understory, the ground-level layer of vegetation,” according to the Inquirer. The park’s forest cannot regenerate.
The deer will be lured by apples and grain and federal employees or contractors will use silencer-equipped rifles to shoot the animals during night hunts.
