The suit was filed jointly by New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, Mercer County Deer Alliance and the national Animal Protection Institute.
By: David Campbell
A coalition of state and national animal-rights advocates filed a lawsuit Wednesday with the Appellate Division of state Superior Court seeking to overturn recent state approvals of Princeton Township’s deer-management program.
The suit filed jointly by New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, Mercer County Deer Alliance and the national Animal Protection Institute is the second legal action this month challenging the validity of the township program.
The plaintiffs allege the state’s deer-management program and enabling statute are illegal, and therefore the permits issued to the township under them are invalid.
Plaintiffs claim the state’s community-based deer-management program oversteps the statutory authority granted to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife and its permit-issuing branch, the Fish and Game Council, and say the state’s Local Deer Management Law is an "impermissibly broad and unconstitutional" delegation of legislative authority, according to the suit.
Plaintiffs also allege the state’s deer-management program was approved without appropriate public notice.
"Given the extraordinary scope and breadth of this new program, which is a major departure from the Fish and Game Council’s narrow mission to ensure adequate game for hunting, there should have been public input and participation," said Nielsen Lewis, the plaintiffs’ attorney.
A similar lawsuit filed by Mr. Lewis on behalf of the plaintiffs last year is pending in the Appellate Division.
Mr. Lewis said the latest lawsuit is meant to ensure that any ruling by the court will address the new net-and-bolt component to the township’s deer-management program approved by the state.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Fish and Game Council adopted their community-based deer-management program in April 1998. The state Legislature enacted The Local Deer Management Law in June 2000, thereby granting the Division of Fish and Wildlife the authority to approve municipal deer-management programs.
On Nov. 12, the Princeton Township Committee unanimously approved its new deer-management plan, which calls for Hamden, Conn.-based wildlife management firm White Buffalo to cull the township deer herd by 500 by the end of March, at a fee not to exceed $150,000.
The Fish and Game Council voted unanimously to grant the township a permit for the plan the next day.
White Buffalo primarily will use sharpshooters armed with silenced rifles at night and shoot from elevated stands at baited sights on public and private lands.
The program also calls for netted deer to be killed using captive-bolt guns, which typically are used to euthanize livestock in slaughterhouses under controlled conditions.
On Dec. 13, lawyers representing more than 30 plaintiffs filed suit against the township claiming in part that its deer-management program endangers public safety and violates state animal-cruelty laws.
This is the second year of the township’s five-year deer-management plan.
Between Feb. 17 and March 3, White Buffalo sharpshooters killed 322 deer from a herd estimated at 1,600, at a cost of $90,000.