West Seneca, N.Y. (WBEN) - The deer population is rising in West Seneca. Now the town has received state approval to extend efforts to cull the population.
Supervisor Gary Dickson says while he doesn't have an exact count, he estimates more than 1,000 deer have been in his town.
"We do know that there are way more deer than the public would like to have," Dickson said in an interview with WBEN.
His residents have had several complaints, ranging from poop on their lawns to disease, and to collisions with cars.
Last year, Dickson started a deer control program, obtaining a permit from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the town is now staffed with hunters who have a DEC nuisance wildlife permits.
"We only had one guy last year, and he got 100 deer," Dickson noted.
Now there is a team of eight, with the goal of culling the deer population by 200. Dickson says the meat is processed and then donated to FeedMore WNY. From there, FeedMore offers the meat for free to other food banks.
Dickson says there is a big reason why deer population is on the rise.
"Wildlife biologists tell us the deer evolved in an environment where 30% of them are killed by predators, so there are no predators that take down the deer, natural predators like bears and wolves," Dickson explained. "Unfortunately, they're doing what nature has told them to do, which is, have a lot of babies, and now there's no predators to get rid of them."
Deer hunting in West Seneca by the general public is not permitted.