Oxford Targets Deer Overpopulation ... With a Bow and Arrow

Deer are fair game in Oxford city limits until October - but only for 20 skilled archers.

Deer season has opened in Oxford – within the city limits. MPB’s Cari Gervin has the story.

Deer hunting in Mississippi isn’t legal until October if you’re using a bow and arrow, and not until November if you’re using a gun. But for 20 skilled archers in the Oxford area, deer season started last Thursday.

The hand-picked group of hunters will be able to kill any deer, including doe and fawns, on wooded city property for the next 30 days. They can also hunt on private land within city limits with the owners’ written permission.

Oxford Mayor Pat Patterson:

“I think there’s clearly a problem. We’ve had an increasing number of complaints, we’ve had increasing number of deer wrecks and damage from deer.”

Lafayette County has one of the state’s fastest growing deer populations. Like any number of communities across the country, new development from the housing boom led to a sudden loss of wooded habitat for deer. The new development also meant new plantings of saplings and shrubbery, treats too tasty for most deer to ignore.

So urban hunting is on the rise, although programs in Mississippi have been limited compared to some Midwestern states. Mayor Patterson says reaction so far has been mixed – half the people want the hunters to come to their homes, but others say bow-hunting is cruel and inhumane.

Tori Perry is with the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. And she says that bow hunting isn’t the only problem – it’s more like, urban hunting doesn’t decrease deer population.

“In fact, targeting these individual animals means that any surviving deer or deer in neighboring areas can move right in the area where you just wiped out part of the population, use the now-available resources to breed at an accelerated rate, and you wind up with a bigger population than you had before.”

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is in charge of deer management and hunting in the state. On Monday, the agency did not return repeated calls for comment.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.