New Jersey Town Set to Remove Deer Ovaries at the Old Firehall

I swear, these headlines just write themselves. Yes, following in the footsteps of Staten Island, Princeton, New Jersey is putting the wheels in motion on their own version of a program that plans to surgically sterilize wild deer.

In the event that you’ve been living under a rock (or not reading this newsletter), you’ll recall that Staten Island chose to spend millions on a vasectomy-for-deer program rather than shooting them, or allowing hunters to do so. Not to be outdone, the town of Princeton is going all “hold my beer” by focusing on fixing female deer rather than trimming balls from bucks.

According to reports, teams equipped with tranquilizer darts would temporarily take down unsuspecting does and transport them to a makeshift surgical unit located within an old fire station. There a team from, you guessed it, White Buffalo Inc. (the same outfit giving bucks the snip on Staten Island), will race against the clock to cut the doe open, remove her ovaries, staple the wound, apply a tag and radio collar and return her to where she was plucked from.

In the defense of Princeton, the new program is not nearly as costly as Staten Island’s and the new sterilization project is set to work in conjunction with an existing sharpshooter program and a recreational bow hunting program that allows hunters to safely reduce the town’s deer populations. Despite the hunting and sharpshooting programs being in place for over 20 years, the town is struggling to get their deer density down. Pair that with the fact that some of the highest deer densities are found within residential neighborhoods, and you’ve got a situation where the use of firearms would be far too much of a risk to take. With that in mind, the town set out to explore alternative options and, if approved, these neighborhoods will be where the majority of sterilizations will take place.

The plan has since passed the town council but will require approval from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, who is seemingly not a fan of management via sterilization. The DFW has already rejected two previous applications for sterilization and time will tell if the third time's a charm.