South Carolina bill would codify Deer Contraception Regulations
This is another topic that some support and some do not. I personally feel that giving deer contraceptives is a waste of time and money. Time and money that could be put elsewhere.
Bill would clamp down on Deer Contraception.
The Beaufort Gazette
A bill in the state House would require people to get a permit from the Department of Natural Resources to inject any mammal with contraceptives. A study at Fripp Island using contraception to curtail an abundant deer population is already sanctioned by the DNR.
State legislators are stepping into the arena of reproductive law again in a bid to regulate the use of birth control — on deer.
The House passed a bill Wednesday that makes it illegal to use fertility control agents or chemical substances on deer and other wildlife without a permit from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Violators could face a fine of up to $2,500 and two years in prison. The bill must pass the Senate and be signed by governor to become law.
Permits would be eligible for scientific research or for wildlife management as approved by the department, the bill states.
Charles Ruth, a department wildlife biologist who supervises deer and turkey projects statewide, said the bill is intended to reinforce a practice already in place but not codified in law. It would also keep wildlife contraceptives from being used “willy-nilly.”
Contraceptives that target mammals like deer are particularly worrisome.
“People are mammals. There are possibilities of non-target effects,” Ruth said. “What we’re trying to (ensure) is in the event some of these substances are put on the market that they are used appropriately and by responsible and trained individuals.”
Deer contraceptives are in use — with the blessing of the Department of Natural Resources — on Fripp Island as part of a five-year study.
Donations from Fripp Island property owners partially pay for the $170,000 study, which serves as an alternative to the professional culling several gated communities in southern Beaufort County use to thin deer populations, also a process that requires permits from the Department of Natural Resources.
Other than Fripp Island, the only permit the department issued for deer contraceptives went to Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island, though the non-lethal effort to reduce deer population in the community fizzled with a failed lawsuit. A community management company wanted to kill about 200 deer in the late-1990s, which a community group objected to and contested in court.
The department issued permits in about 14 locations for deer culling in the last decade, Ruth said, almost all to gated communities in southern Beaufort County. In those instances, deer were baited to carefully selected open spaces, where a sharpshooter waited.
Allen Rutberg, an assistant professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University who is involved in the Fripp Island study, has been following the bill. He said it is reasonable, though he took issue with an amendment the House committee added Tuesday.
“Preference must be given to hunting as the primary method of controlling wildlife before a fertility control agent or a chemical substance is utilized,” the amendment states.
“I think that localities should be able to choose whatever means is most appropriate for them, rather than state law pushing them to do whatever may not be suitable,” Rutberg said.
For example, Fripp Island’s limited open space and somewhat dense housing would not be appropriate for hunting with firearms for safety reasons, he said. Bow hunting would be too cumbersome to significantly reduce the deer population and, in his opinion, inhumane.
In his study, female deer on Fripp Island are tranquilized with blow darts powered by compressed gas, then tagged and injected with chemical contraceptives.
The Fripp Island study primarily is funded by the Humane Society of the United States. Rutberg estimated the deer population at 400 when the study began in 2004. Recent counts aren’t available, but the deer population has fallen to a level homeowners are generally more comfortable with, said Kate Hines, general manager of the Fripp Island Property Owners Association.
By JEREMY HSIEH - The Beaufort gazette