Township Needs to Cut Deer Population

Princeton Township will likely hire a firm cull the deer population in town in February.

By last year, the deer population was down to 20 deer per square mile. Officials wanted to see if they could maintain that population simply through sport hunting.

“We tried it for a year, with very unfortunate results,” Dona Schneider, chair of the township's wildlife committee. 

She said Princeton’s deer population in the past year doubled with only sport hunting.

There has also been an outbreak of the fatal Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease in the deer population, and once that happens, it’s best to minimize the deer population, Schneider said. The disease can not be transmitted to humans, she said.

So far, 16 deer in Princeton have died from the disease this year, animal control officer Mark Johnson said on Monday.

Township Committee on Monday agreed to put nearly $64,000 into next year’s budget to hire a firm to come into the township and cull the deer population at night, supervised by a police officer.