Valley Forge Park sets deer shoots after year's delay

Officials at Valley Forge National Historical Park say deer will be shot there starting next month, ending a yearlong delay and commencing a controversial plan to dramatically thin the herd.

An animal-rights group responded to Monday's announcement with an immediate pledge to demonstrate at the park. And an attorney said he might seek a restraining order to try to stop the shooting.

A year after putting off a scheduled November 2009 deer kill, Valley Forge Park officials said Monday that they were going forward with "lethal reduction."

They said the goal is to reduce a herd that has grown large and destructive, gobbling so many plants that the forest cannot regenerate. Four years of annual shoots are planned to eliminate 86 percent of the herd, from an estimated 1,277 deer to between 165 and 185.

Each year's shoot will begin in November and end in March. Park officials said they would not announce specific dates in advance.

Sharpshooters are to kill 500 deer this winter, 500 the next, and between 250 and 300 each in the third and fourth years. The plan is for federal employees or contractors to fire silencer-equipped rifles, mostly at night, at deer lured to baited areas. After the four-year hunt, officials plan to maintain the smaller herd through contraceptives and additional shooting.

"We waited our year," park spokeswoman Kristina Heister said Monday. "And now, we're going ahead."

Park managers estimate that shooting deer will cost between $2.0 million and $2.9 million during the next 15 years.

Animal-rights activists say the killings are harmful, unnecessary, and dangerous to people who live or travel near the park.

"It's risking human life and injury," said Elizabeth Madden of Keep Valley Forge Safe. "It's a gamble a sane society should reject."

For the deer, Valley Forge Park is a 5.3-square-mile forest sanctuary, albeit one surrounded by houses, hotels, and the King of Prussia mall. The park draws more than one million visitors a year, from local communities in Montgomery and Chester Counties, and from cities across the nation, though at times it can seem as if deer outnumber people.

A lawsuit filed last year by the Friends of Animals, a national advocacy group, and Compassion for Animals - Respect the Environment (CARE), a West Chester organization, stopped the 2009 shoot. Park officials said at the time that their desire to evaluate related contracts also delayed its start.