Georgia sterilizing deer?

[Warmouth]

I heard a rumor today. Now you know how rumors go - might be some truth to it, might not be, but the question is begging to be asked.

A friend of mine told me that a game warden told his son that the DNR is under tremendous pressure from auto insurance companies to reduce the deer herd. Hunters are not harvesting enough does so the state is going to start feeding deer corn laced with some kind of chemical that will make them sterile. This sounds far-fetched to me but this guy swears that he got this info straight from the DNR. Anybody got any inside scoop on this?

[SlckTrck]

I would hope that is not true. That seems like a pretty broad fix that could cause more harm than good. I would think a better solution would be to allow for more doe tags to the hunters that are taking game. I also wonder if it that the hunters are not taking enough game or there are not enough hunters.

Instead of sterilizing deer, DNR could also thin out the herds and donate the meat to charity.

I will say this, I went up to Rock Creek a few weekends ago. On our way up it was dark so we spoltlighted a few fields on our way. Not shooting deer, just checking out the fields and I saw more deer than I have ever seen. One pasture had at least 60 deer just laying around.

If anyone hears any new info, please post it.

[chuckwagon]

Sterilizing would be a great thing in some areas, some areas not so good. With the feeding in certain spots you could control those isolated areas.

Not so sure about the truth to this or not but i for one am all for it!
I am an avid hunter and deer manager. I have a High heard population. My family and friends cannot shoot enough does to keep the pop. down. The more you shoot the better the heard gets, helping the does have even more babies in theory. This sterilization plan may be a good tool for herd mgnt?
Until it does I will keep my freezer full trying to clean out the does!

[SlckTrck]

Uh, iffin you run out of room in your freezer, I can always make room in mine for good venison. I love that deer meat. :D

[B Kar Ma]

Carl,
I've heard the same rumor, except that there is no way to keep other animals from eating the corn, becoming sterilized, - bad news. I have also heard that DNR may increase the number of does to harvest from 10 to 17. But there is a problem with that - I know that I could have harvested 5-6 more does this season, but with butchering rates at $50 per deer, that becomes cost prohibitive very quickly! And no one wants B Kar Ma to handle a knife and try to butcher his own! I've done that before - almost lost a finger!
I think a solution would be to have more "Harvest for the Hungry" days and locations. That program currently has several locations, but only occurs twice during hunting season. Increase that program and maybe, just maybe, the numbers would come down. One other problem - a lot of the population of deer concentrates in the Metro area. I'm not real good with a bow and gun restrictions in the metro counties keeps growing..

[Warmouth]

BKarMa,

You are right on all accounts. It is hard to shoot a doe once you've gotten the meat you want. In Alabama we are allowed one doe and one buck per day but it is still imbalanced. Just yesterday I let two walk (no I'm not poaching, deer season goes to the end of the month in Alabama). The first one was no more than 20 yards in front of me for at least 10 minutes but she was staring a hole in the woods, so my imagination being what is thought "big buck coming." After she finally scampered off another doe came out. This time I heard movement behind me, so again I let her go. The movement was a bird. The point is, I don't think I'm unusual in that regard. We have an imbalance, but when I go to the processor most of the deer in the coolers are small bucks. I don't know why we are like that but it seems we are.

As far as there being too many deer for the insurance companies goes, I think there are too many people - not too many deer. They can't help it if we keep cramming them into smaller places. Maybe we should sterilize human corn instead. Just kidding of course - well, kind of.

Carl