Oak Bay council has announced to the public that it will begin a clover trap/bolt gun cull of 25 deer in Oak Bay in January 2015. The method chosen for this cull is highly controversial. The claim of a “rapidly expanding deer population” has not been substantiated by a scientific count, such as radio collaring and tracking movements of deer between municipalities.
Some Oak Bay councillors have maintained that experts (unidentified) have assured them the clover trap/bolt gun kill is humane, with some claiming that this method is as humane as any abattoir kill. The use of the bolt gun in an abattoir is paired with an entirely different method of restraint than that depicted in the photographs on the DeerSafe website of the killing of a buck in 2010, where two men are restraining a 140- to 200-pound animal with the weight of their bodies. These are not the conditions of restraint for which the bolt gun was designed.
I suggest that it would be in the best interests of the Oak Bay public if council members were to meet with those opposed to the upcoming cull to observe the clover trap/bolt gun kill by Oak Bay’s chosen contractor.
Given the ongoing controversy regarding the humaneness of this kill method, I hereby ask the council’s permission to observe the clover trap/bolt gun kill, and invite councillors to attend as well.
Kelly Carson
DeerSafe Victoria
