As Tega Cay leaders consider plan to reduce deer population, one place hundreds of miles away learned through trial and error

TEGA CAY, S.C. — The deer population continues to be a talking point in Tega Cay. City leaders have looked into hiring sharpshooters to kill off some of the population. There's been quite a bit of pushback, while others have approved similar plans. 

WCNC Charlotte has followed this story for over a year. Linda Woodard is the mayor of Cayuga Heights, New York. She is not from Tega Cay and had never heard of Tega Cay, but she said the two towns have one big similarity. 

“People could not garden," Mayor Woodard said. "Lots of complaints of deer droppings.” 

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She talked about the annoyances people had in Cayuga Heights and the deer overpopulation.   

“We had 125 deer per square mile," Woodard said.

That's around the same as Tega Cay's roughly 150 deer per square mile. For months, some in Tega Cay have spoken out against the sharpshooter proposal. The proposal would be to bring in a contracted shooter with a team of two others. The team would cull a limited amount of deer approved by a permit. 

Some in Tega Cay have called this unsafe and are worried about bullets hitting people. People have also recommended and pushed for a more humane way of deer control, like sterilization. That process would include capturing the deer and administering birth control. 

Woodard said they tried that in 2012. 

“Which was unsuccessful," Woodard said. “It takes too long.” 

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Woodard said Cayuga Heights then moved to the idea of sharpshooters. 

“There was a lot of opposition in the beginning," Woodard said. "The woman who was my predecessor couldn’t go to the grocery store without being accosted.” 

Cayuga Heights has been sharpshooting for almost 10 years and Woodard said there's been a change of heart. 

"The response now is thank you so much for letting us be able to raise tulips," Woodard said. 

In the yearly deer management report, Woodard said there have been fewer car accidents involving deer. Woodard added there's one difference between Tega Cay's plans and Cayuga Heights' action: Cayuga Heights uses crossbows and not guns. 

Contact Austin Walker at awalker@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.