About Us
Information about the BC Deer Protection Coalition
Who We Are
The BC Deer Protection Coalition presently consists of three grass roots groups (the Invermere Deer Protection Society, DeerSafe Victoria and Humane Treatment of Urban Wildlife) and a registered political party (the Animal Alliance and Environmental Voters Party).
- Animal Alliance and Environmental Voters Party
- Invermere Deer Protection Society
- DeerSafe Victoria
- Humane Treatment of Urban Wildlife: urbanwildlife@shaw.ca
The BC Deer Protection Coalition is a not-for-profit organization of grass roots groups who are working for a non-lethal solution to the perceived problems that communities are currently experiencing with mule deer. The Animal Alliance and Environmental Voters Party of Canada has been supporting us and working with our grass roots groups since December 2010.
We welcome other grass roots groups and individuals who are actively opposing culls in their municipalities. Please check this website to learn about what our groups are doing in our own communities and contact us if we can be of assistance to you.
The Issue
Our province has seen unprecedented development in the past decade. Habitat is being destroyed as housing developments and connecting roads are built ever further into our wild areas. Properties that formerly sheltered deer that co-existed with us within city limits are being sub-divided and developed, leaving the animals with nowhere to go. Highways have been expanded to accommodate growing traffic, endangering wildlife in their habitat outside city limits.
Some residents are intolerant of the appearance of deer in their communities, and have written to their councils demanding that these animals be removed. In response to pressure from local governments asking for solutions to their deer complaints the Ministry of Environment commissioned a wildlife biologist to prepare a report. This report favoured the clover trap/ boltgun method of culling urban deer, a method that was developed in Helena, Montana to destroy deer where sharpshooting near residential areas is too dangerous to the human population.
The following video clearly demonstrates the distress that deer undergo in a clover trap. In this video ear-tagging is the intent, so the men entered the trap. With bolt-gun killing the net is collapsed on the trapped deer and the bolt-gun is positioned to her head while two men lay on top of her.
The MoE purchased 14 clover traps, 2 bolt guns and a plastic sled from Helena, Montana and the culling of deer began in the Kootenays during the winter of 2011. The traps were found to be indiscriminate, however, and whitetail deer, fawns, bucks and pregnant does were killed during the process.