Dear Pass Time and groad 570 UPDATED

John Hayes has yet another deer story about Mt. Lebanon in yesterday's paper. Mount Lebanon, Michigan town have different approaches to deer problem The usual commenters to John Hayes' biased reporting include pro-kill Pass Time (we all know who that is) and anti-kill groad 570. Both read my blog. So this post is for the two of you.

My buddy, Pass Time, reminded us of this letter sent by the PA Game Commission to Keith McGill on February 5, 2016. The letter came as a complete surprise to State Representative Dan Miller and Commissioner Kelly Fraasch because of the positive meeting Dan set up with Mt. Lebanon and the PA Game Commission. I kept this voice mail on my phone for over a year, waiting for the right time to share. I believe the time is right.




I am also addressing this post to groad 570 since he had the following to say:

I'm sure if the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners stood together as one and demanded that they be allowed to implement a safe approach to deer mgt in their community, and requested the support from their state representatives, that the PGC would grant them their request.

groad 570, as you can hear above, our state representative and commission did stand together as one and asked for sterilization, but it got us nowhere. When the Game Commission has John Hayes and Susan Morgans working with them, nothing can stop the PA Game Commission. They will NEVER approve sterilization because no deer are being killed. Literally, the PA Game Commission is calling the shots here.

So Pass Time, rest assured that you will continue to get deer killed in Virginia Manor. John Hayes had this as his final statement.

In the coming months, commissioners in Ann Arbor and Mt. Lebanon will vote on including the cost of deer management in their 2018 budgets.

What will the deer management be? According to Tony DeNicola's final "sharpshooting" report,

The Commission will need to decide whether to emphasize added non-traditional lethal management activities in very tightly developed areas or transition to sterilization in these areas of the community. 

What are non-traditional lethal management activities that Tony DeNicola uses?

• Live capture followed by euthanasia (More trap and shoot. Think Merlin the Magnificent). 
• Non-hunting participants scaring deer toward tree stands using ATVs. Deer seeking refuge were dispersed to hunters in tree stands by non-hunting participants on foot or in off-road vehicles to increase the likelihood of harvest. 

Mt. Lebanon commissioners strive to please those in Ward 1 and will continue to include deer killing in the 2018 budget. The budget will be approved by the current commissioners: John Bendel, Dave Brumfield, Steve Silverman, Steve McLean, and Kelly Fraasch. Dave Brumfield is not going to be on the commission in January. We're hoping that incumbent Steve Silverman will not win, but he will still be able to vote for more deer killing either way.I'm sure if the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners stood together as one and demanded that they be allowed to implement a safe approach to deer mgt in their community, and requested the support from their state representatives, that the PGC would grant them their request.

Update March 6, 2017 3:29 PM Keith McGill continues to give Nick Meduho one word answers. The cost of the 2017 "sharpshooting" program was $44,868.50. Fifty five deer were killed for $44,868.50. That comes to $815.79 per deer. Of those 55 killed, 22 were fawns, which would have not been born had we sterilized the deer. The foundation was going to pay for the sterilization and would have cost us a minimal amount of money, but the deer haters convinced the commission to continue killing deer at a much higher cost.