L.A. supervisors oppose plan to eradicate Catalina deer by shooting them from helicopters

A mule deer doe walks along a hillside near the Descanso Beach Club in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island last year. In the fall, the Catalina Island Conservancy labeled its plan to eliminate the island’s invasive mule deer population, by employing helicopter-bound hunters armed with high-powered rifles, “bold and ambitious.” But the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chose other descriptors, decrying the proposal in an opposition letter as “inhumane and drastic.” Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Santa Catalina Island, drafted the response — saying she was prompted by “an intense public outcry” that sprung up after the aerial sharpshooting proposal became public. “The island and the deer are both fighting for survival and neither one is winning,” Whitney Latorre, the conservancy’s chief executive, said in an interview with The Times in the fall. Aerial sharpshooting was listed as the top option because it’s “efficient” for eliminating large numbers of deer over a short amount of time, according to the conservancy. The group says there was “no meaningful public process” in discussing the proposal and characterized aerial shooting as “inhumane tactics.” Both the coalition and Hahn have said the sharpshooting method is extreme.