Judge clears way to kill nearly all of Catalina Island's 2,000 deer

A county judge in California has tentatively denied a preliminary injunction sought by opponents of a plan to kill nearly all of the roughly 2,000 mule deer living on Catalina Island, off the southern California coast. The Catalina Island Conservancy, which controls 88% of the island, can now move forward with a five-year elimination effort.

The deer were introduced to the island for sport hunting about a century ago and have multiplied ever since. Researchers say the animals feed on native shrubs already stressed by climate change, preventing them from recovering and allowing invasive grasses to take their place. Those grasses ignite and spread fire more easily, a growing concern as wildfire seasons in southern California have become more severe.

Conservancy communications director Pepe Barton said other options — contraception, sterilization, fencing or introducing predators — were ruled out as impractical or risky, and that four decades of regular hunting seasons had failed to curb the population's growth.

The plan has drawn strong opposition from an unusual alliance of animal welfare advocates and hunters, who challenged it in court, while an online petition against the culling has gathered more than 32,000 signatures. Los Angeles county supervisor Janice Hahn asked Governor Gavin Newsom to intervene, but the appeal did not change the outcome.

Under the approved plan, about 200 deer are expected to be culled with rifles over the next two months, and island residents will be given one final hunting season this autumn. Only a small group of deer near the town of Avalon will be sterilized rather than killed. Meat from the culled animals will go to California's condor recovery program or local tribal groups, and carcasses near trails or roads will be removed.

Catalina is the last part of the Channel Islands National Park still home to a non-native deer population.