In an ironic twist leading up to the final phase of Parks Canada’s plan to eradicate deer on Sidney Island, local property owners are saving some of the animals — and putting themselves in harm’s way to do it.
Since early August, the nine-square-kilometre island has been swathed in kilometres of net fencing.
It’s a tactic by Parks Canada to create killing zones for Phase 2 of the plan to rid Sidney Island of invasive fallow deer.
The idea is to use tracking dogs to rush the deer into fenced areas where marksmen will kill the deer with a bullet to the head.
But that fencing — about 35 kilometres of recycled aquaculture netting — is having some unintended consequences.
In two instances last weekend, islanders rescued deer that had become entangled in the netting.
In both cases, the animals were exhausted from thrashing around to get out of the netting and could have died a slow, painful death, said Wendy Ord.
Ord, her husband, Glen Samuel, and two other men spent a tense 20 minutes on Sunday cutting away the netting to rescue one deer. By the time they found the animal, about an hour after it was reported, it was severely traumatized and weak.
Ord had to use her coat to hold the deer’s legs and prevent it from injuring the rescuers.
A similar rescue was done on Saturday by two other Sidney Island property owners.
“You can be easily injured when they are in this state,” said Ord, adding many island resident are asking “where are the professionals here? Aren’t they supposed to be watching for this?”
Ord said there could be other deer in the same predicament that haven’t yet been found.
“How many other deer were not so lucky to be right beside a well-travelled road?”
In a statement, Parks Canada said animal welfare is a priority and its project members are monitoring all Sidney Island wildlife fencing daily to identify, report and intervene in the case of wildlife entanglement.
It said Parks Canada sought guidance from animal-welfare authorities, including the Parks Canada Animal Care Committee, BC SPCA and the provincial wildlife veterinarian, to “take all reasonable steps” to mitigate risks to wildlife during the eradication operation.
“This includes measures to minimize the risk of wildlife entanglement,” the statement said.
Parks Canada said it’s investigating the latest entanglement incidents.
The $12-million multi-year effort to eliminate the fallow deer and restore the island’s native plants has been controversial, both for its steep price tag and the use of foreign sharpshooters and dogs, restricted weapons as well as helicopters for the deer kill.
Sidney Island is about 80% privately owned by a strata that includes 111 private lots and a large common area. The remaining portion at the Sidney Spit end of the island is a national park in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.
In the initial phase of the deer kill over 11 days last December, U.S.- and New Zealand-based sharpshooters killed the animals from a helicopter during the day and on the ground at night.
That first phase cost $800,000, including $67,000 to lease a helicopter and $137,000 on firearms certification for international workers to use restricted weapons. But only 84 deer were killed — including 18 native black tail deer and three that couldn’t be identified.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said that was a hit to taxpayers of $10,000 a deer — when residents of Sidney Island who organize annual hunts every fall killed 54 fallow deer in October and November of 2023 at no cost to taxpayers.
The final phase of the deer kill is expected to begin Nov. 15.
Ord said the amount of netting installed so far is enough to fence from downtown Victoria to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal. “And you can hardly see it in most places.”
She said there are some metal stakes to support the netting in open areas, but most of the netting is attached to trees with “ratchet straps.”
The cost of the net fencing is $399,500, according to documents attained through freedom of information requests.
Island resident Carla Purves said islanders have been told that teams of dogs, a helicopter, noise-making machines, infrared light and bait stations will be used to lure deer into 19 “lethal zones” where they will be trapped by the netting and “dispatched” by the marksmen.
The island is closed as of Nov. 1 on the national park side, but the private land will remain open during the second phase, which is expected to last until late April, while hunters round up and kill the deer.
Parks Canada has said the first part will involve observing deer movement and getting familiar with the landscape prior to beginning active operations, with “minimal shooting.”
Then hunters and dogs will move deer from private lots into common property zones and start the killing. Property owners were told a helicopter may be used as early as December, depending on site conditions and deer behaviour, but there will be no shooting from the helicopter over private lands, as was the case in the initial phase.
Handlers and dogs will conduct systematic sweeps of each zone and private lots, where permitted by owners, until they’re confident all deer have been removed.
At that point, the fencing will be dismantled, said Parks Canada.
Parks Canada staff have told owners that hunting will continue through the holiday season, with project personnel remaining on-site.
Some common property zones will be open for residents’ use and openings and closings of areas will be updated daily. Some roads will have gates made of plastic freezer curtains.
