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Can Contraceptive-Tipped Darts Curb The Deer Population?

Courtesy of Pixabay

On Long Island, Head of the Harbor village officials want to allow researchers to use darts dipped with contraceptive to cut the deer population.

There are roughly 600 deer living in and around the woods of Head of the Harbor.

New York State’s preferred method of deer population control is hunting, but many village residents reject hunting as inhumane.

So trustees decided last year to contact researchers from the Humane Society of the United States about using porcine zona pellucida, also known as PZP, to control the deer population.

John Griffin, director of urban wildlife at HSUS, says they work with non-hunting communities to find solutions.

“We help communities work through conflicts and put reasonable kinds of management plans in place if there's not a knee jerk reaction to lethal control, which unfortunately, is often the case.”

But there lies another roadblock.

The same local law that outlaws hunting in the North Shore village bans discharge of most projectile weapons, including the ones researchers would use to inject the deer with PZP.