Richmond Heights plans for second year of deer culling

Aug. 26—The city of Richmond Heights intends to move forward with its second year of deer culling as a part of the city's Deer Management Plan.

Working in coordination with the Ohio Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the city has a plan to systematically cull the deer population as it begins to exceed the community's cultural carrying capacity.

"The cultural carrying capacity our city uses to manage deer population is a matter of public safety and attitude," Police Chief Thomas Wetzel said. "Large populations of deer can lead to traffic crashes while public attitude can be influenced by the damage deer cause due to gardens and home landscapes being grazed upon."

Richmond Heights intends to enter a contract that will allow the USDA to conduct a limited culling throughout the city while following the highest level of safety precautions, only utilizing rifles in areas without human population. The police department works side by side with the USDA to locate these locations and maintain a safe neighborhood as the cull continues.

"People have different comfort levels when it comes to having deer walking about their yards in close proximity to their homes," Wetzel said. "Public safety data can be gathered through accident report information while public attitude can be obtained through a deer survey which our city did a while ago.

"From the police department perspective, public safety is our primary concern, and an accident with a deer can cause significant damage to a vehicle or injury to vehicle occupants."

All culled deer will not go to waste as their carcasses will be gathered and butchered so that the venison can be donated to local food banks.

Wetzel said the costs for the second year of culling will be $60,582. That price includes costs to butcher the deer.

Last year 50 deer were culled, though Wetzel said that due to higher populations that number should increase significantly this year.