11.17.05Lloyd Harbor deer cull suspended
11.17.05
Lloyd Harbor deer cull suspended
BY CYNTHIA DANIELS
STAFF WRITER
November 17, 2005
After a Catholic seminary decided it didn't want to allow a special deer hunt on its property, the state parks department decided to take a second look, too.
And that means a deer cull in Lloyd Harbor, which allows state licensed marksmen to kill deer with short-range shotguns in order to reduce their population, is on hold, indefinitely.
The state parks department on Tuesday planned to review its decision to cull the herd at Caumsett State Park after the Diocese of Rockville Centre suspended the practice at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Lloyd Harbor.
Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese, said a new rector at the seminary wanted to assess the situation after protests from animal rights advocates.
Both the diocese and the state parks department said the cull, which had
already removed eight deer from the seminary earlier this month, was done
at the village's request to control a herd that had grown to an estimated
80 deer.
"We were just cooperating with the village in terms of thinning out the
deer population," Dolan said. "I think there really needs to be a case
made that this take place on the ground of the seminary."
Lloyd Harbor Mayor Leland Hairr could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But earlier this month, Hairr said the village was not "trying to
exterminate the herd ... [but] keep the herd so it doesn't grow larger."
The deer have already eaten residents' landscaping and the village's
forest understory while colliding with numerous vehicles, Hairr said.
Three state Department of Environmental Conservation nuisance permits -
which are typically granted to applicants who can prove economic loss and
public safety fears because of deer - were issued in the Lloyd Harbor
area, said spokesman Bill Fonda. In October, Hairr applied for two permits
- one for the village and another for the seminary. Earlier this month,
the state parks department applied for a permit.
The permits requested 46 deer be killed on the properties - a move animal
rights activists didn't like. "There's no need to take a life," said
Dennis Glassberg, a Dix Hills resident and member of Save Our Animal
Friends, a Suffolk County-based animal rights group. "These animals were
put on earth to live their life and they have a right to live their
lives."
Last fall, fearing possible controversy, the Village of Lloyd Harbor and
the state parks department agreed not to publicize a deer cull in Caumsett
State Park and the seminary. The cull killed 27 deer but angered residents
who woke to the sound of gunshots.
Still, most residents - notified this year by mailing about the cull -
agree with the village's decision, Hairr said. He cited a May phone-in
poll and a June exit poll that showed overwhelming favor for the cull.
"The voice of the people to us was we need to have a culling program," he
said.
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