Township officials uncertain about next move after surprise decision by Fish and Game Council.
By: David Campbell
In a stunning reversal, Princeton Township’s deer-management program, poised to begin its third year, was abruptly halted Thursday when the state Fish and Game Council voted to prohibit culling with rifles and captive-bolt guns, and to deny the township’s request to undertake a pilot birth-control program.
Lawyers opposing the program said the council’s vote means the end to lethal deer-management in the township and the state.
"It’s over. We’ve killed it," said attorney Bruce Afran. "This vote vindicates everything we have fought for in court." Opponents said they had heavily lobbied members of the council to turn the township down. Hunting groups also took credit for a heavy lobbying effort, particularly in the week leading up to Thursday’s vote.
Township officials expressed uncertainty about what the municipality’s next move should be and whether the program will go forward at all.
"I don’t know what the next step is," said Township Attorney Edwin Schmierer as he was leaving the state Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Central Region Office in Robbinsville, where the council meeting was held.
Mr. Schmierer expressed confusion over why the council voted down the third year of the township’s program after approving it for the two previous years. He said the cull was ready to begin as soon as the council approved the plan and a permit was issued.
Township Deputy Mayor William Enslin called the council’s vote a "terrible setback."
"We’re scrambling at the moment trying to figure out how to keep the program on target," Mr. Enslin said, noting that some of the $160,930 the Township Committee agreed in December to pay Connecticut firm White Buffalo for deer management this year has already been spent.
Mr. Enslin said he hoped the council’s decision did not mean an end to the program this year, and said the township is exploring whether to resubmit a pared-back application to the Division of Fish and Wildlife for just sharpshooting this year.
"We had made such good progress in reducing our deer-car collisions by 50 percent," the deputy mayor said. "We’ve made an investment to get the deer population down under control, and it would be such a tragedy to see that investment go to waste.
"We’re not just going to pick up our marbles and go away," Mr. Enslin said. "We thought it made sense five years ago. We still think it makes sense."
Township officials also will consider a recommendation backed by some Fish and Game Council members that the municipality permit hunters to kill deer on public parklands next season, Mr. Enslin said.
But such a measure could pose serious safety hazards to residents, the deputy mayor said, and will need careful consideration by township officials before any decision is made.
Mayor Phyllis Marchand was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Susan Martka, lead biologist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, said Thursday that if the township wants to proceed with its deer-management program this year, it must submit a new application and, in effect, "start from the beginning."
Ms. Martka, who was present for the council’s deliberations, said she had a hard time reading council members’ reasons for denying the township’s request, and said she doesn’t know what to recommend to the township.
In 2001, White Buffalo sharpshooters killed 322 deer. Last winter, 303 deer were killed. The township’s goal is to reduce the herd to around 320 deer, or about 48 deer per square mile, Larry Herrighty, chief of the wildlife division’s Bureau of Wildlife Management, told the council on Thursday.
A helicopter count of the township’s herd conducted in December estimated the current herd to have around 680 deer, well above the township’s goal, Mr. Herrighty said. He recommended the Fish and Game Council approve the township’s request.
The Division of Fish and Wildlife granted approval of the township’s application, but could not issue a permit without the Fish and Game Council agreeing to waive constraints under the state’s Fish and Game Code that prohibit the lethal components of the plan as well as the experimental birth-control program.
But on Thursday, the council, a regulatory branch of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, was divided over whether to grant the waivers. The council voted down four motions, the last of which left the township’s application, and the division’s approval of it, dead in the water.
The first motion, by Councilman Jack Schrier, to have the council consider the three components of the township’s plan individually failed with a 4-5 vote, with one member absent.
The second motion, to approve the waivers with the caveat that the division make the issuance of its permit conditional upon the township opening up the municipality’s parklands to hunters next fall, failed by a second 4-5 vote, with Councilman Robert Von Suskil abstaining.
Mr. Schrier followed with a motion similar to the second one, but without the net-and-bolt component. This was defeated with a 4-6 vote. A final motion to reconsider the second motion was killed with another 4-6 vote.
The two issues that seemed to concern council members most were whether the killing of wild deer with captive-bolt guns slaughterhouse devices that kill with a retractable bolt to the animal’s head is humane, and the notion that the township’s cull denies hunters of their rights to game.
Councilman Elwood Knight said he was surprised the council approved net-and-bolt last year.
"I don’t want to see our wildlife done away with in this manner," Mr. Knight said. "To me it’s distasteful. I never supported it from the beginning."
Councilman Ed Kertz called the township’s cull "a slap in the face" to hunters, who, he said, should be the ones to reduce deer overpopulation in places like Princeton Township.
"I don’t agree with it, especially the methods being used," Mr. Kertz said of the township’s proposal.
Mr. Afran and attorneys Falk Engel and Carl Mayer, who were present for the council vote Thursday, are longtime foes of lethal deer management in the township.
They represent more than 30 plaintiffs in a suit pending in the state Appellate Division claiming the township program violates public safety and state animal-cruelty laws, and have represented several clients arrested by the township on trespass and other charges related to last year’s deer cull.
In October, the lawyers filed a civil-rights suit in federal district court in Trenton accusing the township’s mayor and police chief of improperly using police to harass and intimidate critics.
Mr. Mayer said he was not surprised by the council’s vote. The attorney described the township’s deer-management program as "barbaric and inhuman" and said he and his associates actively lobbied council members over the past week and up to the last minute before their deliberation on Thursday.
Robbinsville resident Robert Kubiak, director of a coalition he formed called Hunters’ Advocate and a plaintiff in the pending suits, said he organized more than 200 hunters in the state to aggressively lobby members of the council in the week leading up to the Thursday vote.

