Urgent Appeal - City of Hamilton Considers Massive Deer Kill At Iroquoia Heights
Spring 2010
 
Because a handful of area residents have been complaining about White-tailed Deer eating their garden plants, the City of Hamilton is now considering a massive deer kill at Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area - part of the Bruce Trail System on the Niagara Escarpment and located in the town of Ancaster.
This was confirmed by an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources report released on March 30, 2010 to the City of Hamilton recommending a deer hunt at Iroquoia Heights.
Knowing that the loss of a few garden plants would not win public support for an inner city deer hunt, proponents of killing deer have begun layering the issue with broader concerns. Specifically, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources argues that deer are ‘over-abundant’, could pose a human threat through aggressive behaviour, cause car collisions and are destroying vegetation.
Yet they have provided no documented proof of habitat destruction, no sign of deer starvation or disease, not even an accurate assessment of the current deer population.
And according to the City of Hamilton Traffic Department, there have been only two car collisions involving deer in the last ten years within a one kilometre radius of Iroquoia Heights Conservation Reserve.
Nonetheless, the City of Hamilton is considering killing over 90% of the deer at Iroquoia Heights and opening recreational hunting in all natural areas in the Hamilton area.
Please contact your city councillor today. Call Hamilton City Hall at 905.546.CITY (2489)
There’s no evidence anything will be solved by killing as no underlying factors are population based.
Help protect our urban deer populations and local green spaces from unnecessary harm and exploitation for profit. The City of Hamilton would be the first municipality in Ontario to allow an urban deer hunt. Let’s stop it now.
Please contact Peaceful Parks for further updates: ppc@peacefulparks.org or toll free 1.877.785.8636.
Download a copy of the ‘MNR Ancaster Deer Report’ at this link.
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