Urban hunting proposed to thin Springfield's deer population
Injured and disoriented, a deer wandered along Campbell Avenue near the intersection of Battlefield Road.
It had just smashed into a storefront window in a vacant business, police believe, before it smashed into another window to escape the building.
The deer made it more than a half mile Tuesday evening before it collapsed and was later dispatched by a Springfield police officer.
It is urban deer incidents like these that have led Springfield City Council members to look more closely at allowing deer hunting inside city limits.
As recently as last week, a committee of council members met to discuss the possibility of an urban hunting season to help control the city's deer population.
Some council members appeared to endorse a citywide bow-and-arrow hunt.
Other city leaders were more cautious of widespread urban hunting.
"Everything goes well until it doesn't," said Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky, who at one point during the committee meeting challenged her colleagues to consider the possibility of a worst-case scenario in which a child is killed by a wayward arrow.
But others at the meeting — which included an expert on deer management from the Missouri Department of Conservation — assured that urban deer hunting is safe.
There has never been a serious bow-and-arrow hunting injury in Missouri since the conservation department has been keeping records, said Urban Wildlife Biologist Brad Jump.
Upon hearing that statistic, Councilman Mike Carroll said he believed it much more likely for a person to be injured in a car crash caused by an overabundance of deer than to be hurt in an urban hunting accident.
"I'm having trouble finding any resistance to this," Carroll said.
For this report, the News-Leader obtained public safety records of car crashes involving deer in Springfield for years 2012 and 2013.
According to the data, deer have contributed to or caused 30 wrecks in city limits.
Seven people have been injured as a result of those crashes. None were fatal.
The majority of the wrecks occurred between the months of October and December which coincided with the rutting period — when male deer fight for access to female mates.
Most wrecks occurred late enough in the evening that driving conditions were considered dark.
Fewer crashes occurred in 2013 than in 2012.
The city has attempted to control the deer population in some areas. A managed deer hunt occurs each season near Lake Springfield and Fellows Lake.
Since 2009, hunters have bagged 60 deer between the two areas.
Jump said those hunts have stabilized the deer population in those immediate areas but, elsewhere in the city, populations continue to grow exponentially.
Some places in southeast Springfield, for example, have three or four times the deer density the conservation department recommends.
Jump also urged council members to look at several other Missouri cities that have successfully used urban hunting to manage the deer population.
Council members plan to continue discussing the urban hunting option.
Councilman Craig Fishel, who represents southeast Springfield, said he would like to see the city allow a broader urban hunting program by the start of archery season, Sept. 15.
Open house meetingon deer management
The Missouri Department of Conservation will hold an open house meeting in Springfield on June 17 at the Missouri State University, Christopher Bond Learning Center, 2401 S. Kansas Expressway.
Hunters and other Missouri residents with an interest in deer management can come and go any time between 3 and 8 p.m.
Booths will focus on the history of deer management in Missouri, the state's new deer management plan, possible regulation changes, hunter retention and recruitment, public comments received so far, and other issues related to deer management.
Attendees can concentrate on their particular interests, asking questions and discussing their ideas one-on-one with biologists and other key staff.