Hunting Realities
There are many different species of animals that are hunted, but the most well-known and controversial is the white-tailed deer.
There are many misconceptions and untruths surrounding this issue. The purpose of this website is to answer many of the important questions regarding deer and hunting in OH.
For over 100 years, ODNR-Division of Wildlife have had complete authority over our wildlife. Along with the Wildlife council, they create the hunting seasons, and decide how many animals should be killed.While DOW continues to publicly push hunting as an effective tool in reducing deer populations, a detailed examination of their own records and reports confirms that not only does hunting not reduce deer populations, it, in fact, increases them. To understand this paradox, one must first realize their motives. ODNR, Wildlife Council are controlled and run by hunters. The salaries of ODNR employees are paid for by the sale of hunting licenses. The Division of Wildlife must sell many hunting licenses just to cover their salaries and benefits. It is for this reason that they must ensure that there is an abundant supply of animals for hunters to kill.
This is the tragedy of it all, the very organization that should be protecting our wildlife makes its money from their slaughter.
Deer Biology and the Effect of Deer Hunting
One might question, if the Division of Wildlife were ardently pushing hunting just to sell licenses, wouldn't they run out o fdeer to hunt.This reasoning would make sense, if what we've been told (that hunting reduces deer populations) were true. The simple fact is hunting increases deer populations. This information is common knowledge among the scientific community and within the ranks of the Division of Wildlife. ODOW is in the business of keeping Ohio's deer population abundant, and hunting is the means through which that goal is carried out.
Without hunting, deer populations stabilize themselves based upon the amount of food and water present, land available, and natural mortalities. When conditions are bad, deer respond with decreased pregnancies, and death among the weakest members. Within these conditions, there is no increase in the size of the population. The herd remains stable and healthy. This is how nature regulates wild animal populations. However, when hunting is introduced to a stable deer herd, everything is thrown out of balance. When a large number of deer is removed from a herd, competition for food, water, space and breeding opportunities is reduced. The reaction of the herd, to the sudden kill, is increased breeding. With plenty of food to go around, more does are likely to get pregnant, and twin and triplet births often occur. This added nutrition will also allow new born fawns to gain enough weight by the time they are 6 months old to become pregnant. Normally, they would wait 2 to 3 years. This new, high birth rate not only replaces those that were killed, but it adds significantly to the size of the total population. The natural processes of deer herds and the disturbance of these processes caused by hunting is well documented.
From the ODNR website:
Ohio deer hunters took a record 237,316 deer during the 2006-07 hunting season. The total number of deer taken was 13 percent above last years totaling 209,513
2008-'09 --- Record total of 252,017 deer killed
2009-'10 A total of 260,261 deer harvested. A 4 percent increase from last year.
