Sharpshooters cull 225 deer at Valley Forge

By Anthony R. Wood
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

…U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters killed 225 deer in November, Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said today.

…The cull, in which deer are lured to baited areas and shot, is “reprehensible,” said Lee Hall of Friends of Animals. The group is appealing a judge’s decision that allowed the cull to proceed. “It certainly goes against the history and the peace of the park.”

…The Friends group opposes coyote-hunting and says that if it ended in Pennsylvania, coyote numbers eventually would increase inside the park.

…Heister would not even disclose the dates of the November shoots, only that they occurred in “one week.” After four years of shootings, Valley Forge would try to limit the population with chemical birth-control agents if an “effective” one became available.

Hall said..”The ethical thing would be to respect their birthright. This is where they come from, this is where they [were] born. They belong there.”

Click to read full story at the The Philadelphia Inquirer.