In July, Council’s approved “no feeding” ordinance took effect, helping to deter the willful feeding of deer in Worthington. Though this will not reduce the deer population, it may help to prevent additional population (read more here).
As Council discusses future actions about reducing the deer population in Worthington, we are inviting the Ohio wildlife professionals from Ohio Department of Natural Resources to give us more details about suburban deer.
Each Winter, various wildlife agencies conduct flyover counts of deer dens within central Ohio. Worthington participated a number of years ago and I believe we are poised to participate this year so we can get a more accurate count of deer.
This will help us understand their den and mating patterns so we can better understand what a deer mitigation or culling program might look like within the city.
The more immediate concern I want to address is removing dead deer from private property. Currently it is an individual resident’s responsibility to remove a deer carcass if a deer should die. I believe the city should have some responsibility in the matter and will propose the city develop a policy to take responsibility (at least financially) for removing dead deer from private property.