Dec 23, 2007 10:45 am US/Eastern
Goucher College Deer Hunt Is On
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) ―
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The deer hunt at Goucher College is on.
The deer hunt at Goucher College is on. The school says the only way to reduce its overpopulation of deer is to kill some of them. As
Gigi Barnett reports, however, students are speaking out against the idea, especially as the hunt draws near.
Two hundred deer roam wild and free on the Goucher College Campus in Towson. Their time is short, as the college is planning a bow hunt to kill off 50 of them.
Some students and alumni were against that idea from the beginning and, days before the holiday, they still are.
"I can't feel okay about it. Even though this might not work and the hunt will still go on anyway, I need to know that I've done everything I could," said Lily Alden.
Alden organized this protest when she received an email from the college just before final exams.
"Of course we're all stressing and going crazy and then we get this email saying they're going to kill the deer. I read it and I'm like, `I'm not reading this right now. This is crazy,'" she said.
In the email, the college explained that its deer population was out of control.
Deer tracks can be seen throughout the campus and Goucher says killing some deer would reduce the number of car accidents, protect landscaping and prevent Lyme disease on campus.
The college says relocating the deer is too expensive and shooting them with birth control takes too much time.
"None of those options really are viable for obvious reasons," said Goucher Spokesperson Kristen Keener.
Goucher has hired a wildlife control company to kill the deer sometime between now and the new year, but when that hunt will occur has not been released.
"It's just disgusting what they're doing," Alden said.
Protesters are also against the type of hunt planned. Goucher has opted to use bows.
When Lierra Leonard learned about that, she joined the protest.
"It's incredibly inhumane. Fifty percent of the animals go off and bleed to death and die," she said.
But Goucher says it may have to kill more deer in the future. Protesters say they'll speak out against that shoot, too.
Goucher's campus is about 280 acres. The Department of Natural Resources says an area that size should only support about 40 deer.
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