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CNN Live Saturday

Drastic Measures Taken in Suburban New Jersey Neighborhoods

Aired February 17, 2002 - 22:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Some suburban New Jersey residents are having some trouble getting along with some of their neighbors. Previous efforts to work things out haven't worked out.

So as CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports, it's leading to some drastic measures.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARINA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 11:00 in the morning, and Tony Dinicola is getting ready for work. There are guns and bullets, detailed maps, and night vision tools.

This is what you normally use to see deer at what time?

TONY DINICOLA: Typically, you know, once you get to be a half hour after sunset.

HINOJOSA: He loads his 223 caliber rifle in his truck, but Tony is not a hunter. He runs White Buffalo, a non-profit organization the city of Princeton has hired, to sharpshoot the deer.

DINICOLA: In this particular area, we've already removed over 30 animals.

HINOJOSA: It's a national problem, as Americans expand suburbia into the reaches of the forest, wild animals aren't just going away. There are smart and diligent bears and adaptable deer, who it turns out, like suburbia just fine.

DINICOLA: What we like as people in development of suburbia is exactly what deer like. You've created food resource. You've oftentimes eliminated hunting. And you've created an area that has, you know, a safe haven for most natural predators. And so, it's perfect for deer.

HINOJOSA: Not entirely. While Dinicola tries to catch them with nets, to be later be shot, the greatest number of deer deaths come from car accidents. In Maryland, they've set up special reflectors to deal with the problem. Installed on roadsides, they deter deer. Animal rights groups say it's more humane and more effective than gunshots.

MICHAEL MARKARAIN: Hunting actually triggers reproductive growth in a population. It is a bandaid approach. It can reduce a population for a couple months. And then it bounces right back up to the same level, if not higher. Anyone who tells people otherwise, is trying to sell snake oil to a community that is frustrated with its problems.

HINOJOSA: Thomas Poole is frustrated, even though he's an animal lover. He put up a fence soon after his neighbor got lime disease from a deer tick. Pool has supported every other possible solution, trapping and transfer, contraception, doing nothing.

THOMAS POOLE, PRINCETON RESIDENT: And we concluded that we would have to reduce the heard, and that the only available way to do it at this point, was to bring in sharpshooters and literally to reduce the herd that way.

HINOJOSA: (on camera): We were driving along when we saw this sign for the high accident area. And we got out. People around Princeton said that around dust, you could see deer everywhere. We never imagined it would be this simple to find them. It looks like they are just about everywhere.

(voice-over): On front lawns, the fawns play. In streets close by, in wooded backyards, they eat. In groups of five to 10, the deer that once feared humans just stare right back.

So Tony gets on with his work.

DINICOLA: People themselves have to decide how many deer they're tolerant of, versus taking the life of an animal. How fast are you willing to dive? If you want to fence your entire property, because you want to garden or landscape, that's your decision.

HINOJOSA: Climbing trees to wait for a shot at reducing Princeton's deer herd.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Princeton, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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