Wildlife committee’s decision stems from high cost to pursue method at end of season, which ends March 31
Lakeway’s Wildlife Advisory Committee is recommending the city suspend an application for a permit to trap, transport and transplant white-tailed deer from within the city’s borders.
The committee voted unanimously on the matter Jan. 9.
Officials had already taken the first step toward applying for the permit by filing an application with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for approval of a trapping site, which is the city of Lakeway, and a release site, or the ranch where the deer will be relocated. That was completed Jan. 2 and accepted by the state agency.
The committee was in the process of gaining data on the cost to cull 15 deer to test the animals for Chronic Wasting Disease as required by Parks and Wildlife when members discussed the time frame for the program. According to Parks and Wildlife, the deer can only be trapped, transported and transplanted from Oct. 1 to March 31, annually.
Committee members reasoned the process of getting bids to cull the 15 test deer, wait for the results—up to 30 days—and then receive the green light to proceed with the program would leave little time to perform the actual trap, transport and transplant process. A new permit, including the testing of 15 deer, would be required again in the fall for the city to be able to conduct the program during the 2020-2021 season.
“We are so far behind in the curve for trying to do something this year,” Chair Dennis Hogan said. “(The trappers) will give you a quote all right, but it’s going to be pretty high because they don’t really need your business.”
Lakeway City Council approved pursuing an application for the permit at its Dec. 16 meeting, with only four of its seven members voting for the measure. At the meeting, council members additionally put into place a new moratorium on trapping, transporting and transplanting deer as well as continued its moratorium on trapping, transporting and processing, or culling, the animals until the dais approved a final cost analysis of the programs.
Committee members discussed beginning the transplanting permit application process earlier next year. Hogan confirmed the state will offer such a program again for the 2020-21 season.
“We had talked about it in CAFA in late 2019,” said Rita Cross, president of Citizen Advocates for Animals, a Lakeway-based nonprofit that advocates for humane and ethical wildlife management. “We thought through it and we thought there’s no way they can get through all the requirements in the time period through March 31. So, we didn’t think it was feasible but we were a little surprised tonight that common sense prevailed.”
Lakeway City Council’s next regular session is scheduled for Tuesday.
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