It’s the Illawarra’s deer problem laid bare: a dead stag left on the side of the road outside a school in West Wollongong.
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The ill-fated beast, which residents said appeared to have been hit by a car and then killed to put it out of its misery, sat outside Edmund Rice, on Mount Keira Road since early Tuesday.
Much further down the escarpment that most, the young Rusa shows just how far into suburbia his species has come.
In the latest effort to stop the spread of the feral animals, Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery last month joined a delegation to NSW Parliament to push for deer to be classed as a pest species, instead of their current classification as “game”.
“It’s not just that they can cause serious accidents and problems in suburbia, they also cause significant damage to the environment and native flora in the escarpment, and also erosion in our water catchment areas,” he said.
He said a reclassification would help remove the existing red tape around legally culling deer.
However, Cr Bradbery said efforts from the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party had stalled the push to make deer pests, as they wanted to protect the “game” status for hunting purposes.
Asked about the collection process for dead deer on public land, a Wollongong council spokeswoman said the organisation had been told about the animal carcass on Wednesday morning.
[The] customer service team was notified this morning, Wednesday [May 10], of a dead deer on public land on Mount Keira Road,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
“The animal was removed by [the] council’s works crew within 90 minutes of the reports being made to [the] council.’’
Related:
- Deer a pest species: Govt urged to take action on ferals
- Feral deer a pest that needs action, Invasive Species Council says
- Deer culling on Illawarra Escarpment to be easier if species changed from game to pest
- Wollongong council's $320,000 deer cull ineffective
- Feral deer: This menace needs to be dealt with like the pest species it is
- Illawarra deer shooters take note: using a bow doesn't make it legal
- Hunting program pitched to cull Illawarra's feral deer
- Man stabbed by deer at Otford
- Deer taking over Keiraville man's property
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
