Deer caught in culling net rescued by Sydney residents

Ironically, ahead of the final phase of Parks Canada’s plan to shoot all fallow deer on Sydney Island, local property owners are actually saving some of the animals – and putting themselves in danger in the process.

Since early August, the nine-square-kilometre island has been shrouded in kilometers of chain-link fencing.

This is Parks Canada’s tactic to create eradication zones for the second phase of a plan to rid Sydney Island of invasive species.

The idea is to use tracking dogs to drive deer into fenced areas where shooters will kill the deer with a bullet to the head.

But this fencing—about 35 kilometers of recycled aquaculture mesh—has some unintended consequences.

On two occasions over the weekend, islanders rescued deer caught in netting.

In both cases, the animals were exhausted trying to escape the net and could have died a slow, painful death, Wendy Ord said.

The story continues under the video.

Ord, her husband Glen Samuel and two other men spent a tense 20 minutes Sunday cutting the net to save one deer. By the time they found the animal, about an hour after it was reported, it was severely injured and weakened.

Ord had to use her coat to hold the deer’s legs and keep it from hurting the rescuers.

A similar rescue was carried out on Saturday by two other property owners on Sydney Island.

“You can easily get injured when they’re in that condition,” Ord said, adding that many island residents are asking, “Where are the professionals here? Shouldn’t they be keeping an eye on this?”

Ord said there may be other deer in the same predicament that have not yet been found.

“How many other deer have the misfortune of being right next to a busy road?”

Parks Canada said Monday its project team is patrolling the deer fence daily.

Sydney Island is approximately 80% privately owned and includes 111 private sites and a large public area. The remainder of the island at the Sydney Spit end is a national park within the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

Parks Canada’s multi-year, $12-million effort to eradicate the fallow deer and restore the island’s native plants has been controversial both because of its high cost and the use of foreign snipers and dogs, limited weapons, and helicopters to kill the deer.

During the initial phase of the deer killing, which lasted 11 days last December, sharpshooters from the United States and New Zealand killed the animals from a helicopter during the day and on the ground at night.

This first phase cost $800,000, including $67,000 to rent a helicopter and $137,000 to certify firearms for foreign workers eligible to use restricted weapons. But only 84 deer were killed, including 18 native black-tailed deer and three that could not be identified.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said it was a $10,000-per-deer hit to taxpayers when Sydney Island residents, who organize an annual hunt every fall, killed 54 fallow deer in October and November 2023 at no cost to taxpayers.

The final phase of the deer kill is expected to begin Nov. 15.

Ord said the amount of mesh installed so far is enough to fence off downtown Victoria to the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay. “And in most places you can barely see it.”

She said the outdoor areas have a few metal stakes that support the netting, but most of the netting is attached to the trees with “ratchet straps.”

According to documents obtained through freedom of information requests, the cost of the chain-link fencing is $399,500.

Island resident Carla Purves said islanders were told dog teams, a helicopter, noise machines, infrared lights and bait stations would be used to lure deer into 19 “kill zones” where they would be netted and “dispatched.” arrows.

The island has been closed since Nov. 1 by the national park, but private land will remain open in phase two, which is expected to last until the end of April while hunters round up and kill deer.

Parks Canada said the first part will involve monitoring deer movement and familiarizing themselves with the landscape before beginning active operations with “minimal shooting.”

Then the hunters and dogs will move the deer from private land to public property areas and begin the hunt. Property owners have been advised that the helicopter could be used as early as December, depending on terrain conditions and deer behavior, but there will be no helicopter shooting over private lands as was the case initially.

Handlers and dogs will conduct systematic checks of each area and private property where permitted by the owners until they are confident that all deer have been removed.

At this stage, the fencing will be removed, Parks Canada said.

Parks Canada staff have advised the owners that the hunt for the owners will continue through the holiday season and project staff will remain on site. Some common property areas will be open for resident use and information regarding opening and closing areas will be updated daily. Some roads will have gates made of plastic freezer curtains.

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