Hunters trudged through muddy slush in Tyler State Park yesterday to launch the first day of a two-day campaign to reduce the deer herd in the Bucks County park by more than 100.
There was no shortage of hunters - or hunt protesters - despite half an inch of sleet dumped on the Newtown Township park.
Eighty-one deer - 21 more than projected - were killed. During the last Tyler Park hunt, over three days in 1992, 124 deer were killed.
The state Game Commission put Tyler's prehunt deer population at 216. State park officials say that the park's vegetation can sustain 70 to 115 deer.
"This was a very good, safe hunt," said park manager Stanley Peterson. ''We had no injuries and a lot of happy campers.
"In the morning, when the weather seemed like it was getting worse, there was a rash of hunters leaving. But we replaced them with hunters who showed up on standby so that there were always 125 hunters in the park."
Another deer hunt is scheduled for today at Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County.
At Tyler, the state used a computer-drawn lottery to pick 250 hunters. Those who did not get to hunt yesterday will do so on Jan. 18.
The hunters were licensed to kill only antlerless deer, but Peterson confirmed that two bucks were shot by mistake. He said the two hunters responsible were fined $25 each.
The hunts, which have been held six times since 1987, have led to protests
from people living around the park. The 200-member Tyler Committee Against Park Hunts maintains that the deer there are too tame to be hunted.
About 100 people showed up at the park's entrance Monday night for a candlelight vigil sponsored by the committee. Sydell Gross, a spokeswoman for the group, said 25 protesters remained all night, sleeping in cars or under a makeshift tent, to confront hunters who arrived for a safety orientation session at 5 a.m. yesterday.
The hunters, orange-vested and armed with shotguns, filed into the park amid chants of "Farmers, go home." Thirty-nine park rangers, 12 game commissioners and 12 state troopers were on hand to keep the peace and confine the hunt to the park's boundaries.
State park officials reported one arrest. Joseph O'Kane, 30, of Richboro, was charged with criminal trespass at 2 a.m. after he tried to tear down a banner the committee had strung on a pole.
"I wish they (the hunters) would accept an alternative, and I wish the hunt would stop," Gross said. "I wish I could tell you that this is the last protest in Tyler Park."
The group plans to stage another vigil and protest before the Jan. 18 hunt.
The group supports the use of contraceptives as an alternative to hunting. Such a method is being researched at the Pennsylvania State University's department of dairy and animal science.
Penn State researchers were at Tyler Park yesterday, collecting ovaries
from slain deer for the research, which is funded largely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gary Killian, a professor with the project, said that his team had been working for two years to develop an oral contraceptive for female deer. He said developing a safe serum could take three to five more years.
