Advocates who are against the deer cull said they have new information indicating a predetermined decision to sharpshoot the deer population in Griffy Lake Nature Preserve, prior to the release of the Deer Task Force Report.
Sandy Shapshay, president of Bloomington Advocates for Nonviolent and Innovative Deer Stewardship, said documents from a Freedom of Information Act ?request reveals a predetermined outcome to the decision to cull ?the deer.
Shapshay said Dave Rollo, head of the Deer Task Force and president of the Bloomington City Council, had suppressed scientific information in order to go ahead with the deer cull.
“I think what they’re seeking to do is to create a false narrative through misrepresentations and claims that are just false,” Rollo said. “And it really devolves into a tabloid-esque rhetoric, and I think it degrades the conversation on this topic.”
The Deer Task force report done by the City of Bloomington in ?conjunction with Monroe County determined that the population of deer in Griffy Lake was too high and was harming the ecological balance of the area.
The report recommended a lethal solution to cull the deer population as the most effective method compared to other proposed ideas such as fencing or sterilization.
But Shapshay said new documents, acquired through a FOIA request, show that Rollo and the Deer Task Force ignored scientific information.
“We found that there is some very interesting, but also some ?extremely troubling things that were revealed in the results of the FOIA request that contradicted certain statements that city officials and the head of the deer task force, Dave Rollo, had made concerning the deer kill,” Shapshay said.
Shapshay said one of the main concerns she has comes from a document that was ignored about the pellet count in Griffy Lake.
The document was prepared by Angela L. Shelton, a biologist from IU, whose research was used as the basis for the Deer Task Force Report.
The document Shapshay referred to is a scientific article authored by Shelton, along with Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee Jeremiah A Henning, IU biology lecturer Peggy Schultz and IU professor Keith Clay.
The article said the Griffy Lake preserve saw 11 to 12 times more deer activity when compared with similar preserves.
The article expresses some doubt in the method in which the study was done, noting that pellet counts are not always accurate when determining a deer population in a certain area.
Another claim made by Shapshay is that the Deer Task Force suppressed scientific information from Heather Reynolds, an associate professor of biology at IU and wife of Rollo.
Shapshay said documents show that Reynolds said degradation of the vegetation in Griffy Lake preserve is not exclusively because of the deer, but also small mammals.
Rollo said the claims Shapshay has made about how he suppressed scientific information from his wife, Reynolds, are false, and he considers them defamatory.
“I think this is just a sensational attack on a good case effort in community policy making,” Rollo said. “I would suggest that the public would be better served by talking about the next steps we take in the community in regards to deer.”
