Farmington Hills
The Farmington Hills City Council voted, on April 28, 2025, to approve a lethal deer cull even though a majority of residents are against the killing of deer in the city. The fight for humane solutions is far from over.
Their plan to allow archery hunting and firearm sharpshooting in residential areas puts families, children, and pets at risk — while causing unnecessary suffering to deer.
Even though the cull has been approved, we must continue to raise our voices:
To demand accountability
To call for safe, non-lethal alternatives
To show city leaders that this decision does not represent the will of the community
Please send your objections to the city council members and mayor. Let them know that you only support science-based, effective, nonlethal methods to be implemented in the city to reduce vehicle-car accidents and to resolve deer conflicts with residents.
Why This Plan is Wrong
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The City deliberately manipulated the use of the 2022 public opinion survey results because the City failed to mention that over 70% of residents enjoy seeing deer and, in its 2016 public survey, a majority of residents were against using archery hunting and firearm sharpshooting to resolve their concerns about deer.
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The City has only sought the DNR’s biased narrow minded advice, which is always just kill the deer to reduce conflicts with humans.
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The City has done nothing for the past 10 years to research and implement effective non-lethal solutions which will not be divisive among residents
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The DNR wanted the removal of the 450-foot safety zone around homes to eliminate a barrier to allow the use of firearm sharpshooting and especially archery hunting near suburban and urban homes.
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The City is putting our families at risk because it is planning to kill deer in our subdivisions where we live and where our children play in their own backyards.
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The DNR has no sound scientific basis, as is required by law, to conclude that killing deer will reduce deer-vehicle accidents, the risk of Lyme disease (which is not caused by deer) or landscaping and garden damage.
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The annual killing of deer will be endless because the deer population will continue to rebound since the surviving deer will yearly have more fawns and other deer will immigrate from outside the killing zone.
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The City and the DNR recognize that killing deer is a contentious and highly divisive community issue among residents.
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Other cities use community-based, nonlethal and humane strategies, such as the progressive city of Rochester Hills which has successfully implemented nonlethal measures for the past 14 years.
Other Cities Misguided by the DNR
In addition to Farmington Hills, Farmington and Southfield have also voted and approved archery hunting and/or firearm sharpshooting in their city. Many other cities, such as Livonia, are also collaborating with the newly formed Southeast Michigan Urban Deer Management Coalition to address alleged regional deer “overpopulation” issues. This coalition is combining efforts to introduce ineffective and dangerous lethal measures in residential areas to resolve human-deer conflicts. The coalition has used only the direction from the biased DNR which only recommends lethal “solutions” and not effective, science-based nonlethal measures to resolve deer conflicts with residents.
Please send your objections to the city council members and mayor by sending emails and attending council meetings. Let them know that you only support effective nonlethal methods to be implemented in the city to resolve deer conflicts with residents.
