Grand Haven culling deer at cemetery

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) - Past a cemetery's locked gate and the public safety vehicles keeping watch, sharpshooters who the city manager said are from the U.S. Department of Agriculture culled deer Thursday night.

The cull in Lake Forest Cemetery was the latest in a controversial series of efforts to thin the deer population in Grand Haven. An aerial survey earlier this winter found 54 deer living in the city, and earlier in January, the Grand Haven City Council voted 3-2 to go ahead with the cull.

City officials told 24 Hour News 8 in December they had received 115 deer complaints since May 2008, compared to 50 such complaints in all of 2007. The complaints included damage to gardens as well as cars and other property.

Resident Joni Hawkins told 24 Hour News 8 thinning the population is definitely needed.

"Not only [for] the flowers, but the erosion that's going on out here," she said. "And these deer are not getting the food they need."

But Hawkins said she was worried that while the main gate to the cemetery was locked during the cull, the side gate was open. Public safety officers did patrol the street while it was underway.

Hawkins said she is upset that residents weren't told where and when the cull would happen.

That's less of a concern for fellow Grand Haven resident Tom Donahue. He said the city's deer population does not need to be thinned out.

"Yeah they eat my plants once in a while," he said. "That doesn't matter. It's worth the price. They were here first."

Donahue, like protesters outside Grand Haven City Hall earlier Thursday, complained that the council had ignored the results of a task force looking at the deer issue.

"We want it stopped," said Nancy Nagtzaam, carrying a sign that listed the names of the three council members who voted for the cull.

The city has donated venison from the last deer cull. Local charities received roughly 550 pounds of meat.

Grand Haven City Manager Pat McGinnis told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday night leaders did not set a goal for how many deer they wanted to eliminate, but he said they planned for the effort to last through January. That means Thursday's cull might be the last in the city, at least for now.