North Haven: 'Give Us Your Deer'

Following a "60 Minutes" segment about deer in the Northeast, which aired on Nov. 24 and focused mainly on North Haven's problems, the village has received scores of letters on the subject.

People from around the country have offered solutions to the dilemma, the North Haven Village Board noted at its meeting Tuesday night.

Some even offered their towns as new homes for the North Haven deer.

One grinch from Arizona, however, suggested the village require everyone to get big bumpers on their car and raise the speed limit to 75 miles per hour.

Three More Months

The board decided Tuesday to extend the deer-hunting season an additional three months until March 31. So-called "nuisance deer permits" will be issued through that date.

The resolution passed by a 3-2 vote. Patricia Frankemolle and Vincent Mauceri voted against it.

The board also decided, without Ms. Frankemolle and Mr. Mauceri's votes, to proceed with a survey of the economic impact of deer on the village. The survey polls residents about deer-related accidents, Lyme disease, and property damage.

Robert Reiser, who heads the board's deer management committee, said a preliminary survey of 20 households appeared to show damages amounting to over $5,300 per family.

Deer Damage Survey

The study, conducted by students at Southampton College, will eventually include 200 families and will cost the village $2,700. "It's something we need to have in our arsenal of defense as a village," Mr. Reiser said.

Some village residents, however, did not think spending the money was a good idea, nor did they agree with the dollar amounts reported in the preliminary survey.

At last month's Village Board meeting, Mayor Robert Ratcliffe and some residents had suggested the deer committee ask hunters to use shotguns instead of bows and arrows.

Bow and arrow hunting can leave a deer seriously injured, but it may not die for several hours or days. Shotgun hunting, they argued, would be more humane.

Bows And Arrows

Mr. Reiser said Tuesday "the committee felt that was an attempt to locate hunters by the noise of the guns" and then to harass them. Bows and arrows alone will continue to be used, he said.

Hunters have donated 10 deer to a group called Hunters Helping the Hungry, Mr. Reiser told the board, and were to donate another 10 animals to the Sag Harbor Presbyterian Church food pantry yesterday.

Following the meeting, Kelly Patton, who wore a lion mask to last month's Village Board meeting (incorrectly referred to as a deer mask in a previous report), proposed the village create a "deer park," where the animals could roam freely and be appreciated, once the herd was reduced.

Deer Park?

"We have to cull the herd, that has to be done," she acknowledged, but suggested that if some land were set aside for the deer, it might help the community reach a truce on the issue.

"It sounds really strange to the people on North Haven, but someday the white-tailed deer will be endangered," Ms. Patton said.

Trustees said the concept sounded good in theory, but asked where the village would get the land and how the animals could be confined to the one area.