A story by Connie O'Connor on The Clifton Deer Project. This article is also featured in the November 1, 2024, issue of The Ripple.
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It was July 2014 when Chris Lottman heard the news. The Clifton neighborhood council, elected by dues-paying members of Clifton Town Meeting to serve as liaisons with Cincinnati City Council, invited a spokesperson for Cincinnati Parks to share news about an upcoming deer cull. Chris called her neighbor Laurie Briggs and said, “we have to attend.”
Lesson One: Show Up
Cincinnati Parks staff were worried about the damage to vegetation that deer can cause when they overpopulate an area. Since there are no large predators like wolves, and since traditional hunting isn’t allowed in urban areas, deer populations have few limits to expansion. The typical approach is a “cull” where deer are baited and killed at night by sharpshooters or experienced bow hunters. The meat is often donated to soup kitchens. But Chris couldn’t imagine seeing a bleeding deer with an arrow stuck in its side walking past her window. Her granddaughter had joined her in watching these deer raise families in Mt Storm for several years. They felt empathy for them, and that’s why Chris wanted to hear first-hand what their fate would be.
Lesson 2: Be Brave
At the Clifton Town Meeting, the decision was explained by the Cincinnati Parks spokesperson and seemed like a done deal. Chris explains, “We were just two women in our little summer dresses and the park representative explained what to expect and assured people of their safety. He asked if anybody had questions? There was silence. We were the only ones who spoke up.”
Chris and Laurie bravely asked Cincinnati Parks to call a moratorium to buy time for them to explore non-lethal alternatives. The answer was a respectful “no” and the meeting was adjourned.
Lesson 3: Protestors can Disrupt Business and Buy Time
But it wasn’t long before word got out. Animal rights protesters, both local and from other neighborhoods, started showing up in Clifton, wearing deer suits and waving signs. Chris and Laurie thought this was a good thing, to get more attention for the issue.
“I’m a rule follower,” attorney Laurie Briggs states. Chris added, “It isn't in our DNA to stand out on the sidewalk and yell and scream and hold signs, but we recognize that that can be very useful in drawing attention to issues.” The protests made the story into something that people were talking about. Laurie explained, “Protests aren’t necessarily useful in solving issues that require collaboration with the people you're protesting against. Sometimes it's helpful to have a different group doing that, not the group that's actually trying to work with the city in this case.” And that group was Chris, Laurie, and increasingly, Chris’s husband Bob Rack. While protestors were angrily calling for Cincinnati Parks staff to be fired, Bob, Chris and Laurie insisted that the verbal attacks by some activists directed at Cincinnati Parks employees were unwarranted and counterproductive. The successful way forward would be with respect.
The protests, coupled with Bob’s connections to someone at the Cincinnati Enquirer, resulted in a newspaper story about the issue. Laurie’s last quote in the article was a clincher: “If you can be kind and compassionate and still solve the problem, why wouldn't you?”
All of the attention and protests worked … Cincinnati Parks agreed to a moratorium. They gave the community nine months to come up with a solid, science-backed plan for how to effectively control the Clifton deer population, including a plan for funding, and they required approval from Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
It was an easy concession, likely to fail, and then the hunt could be re- scheduled. But Chris and Laurie --- they didn’t fail.
Lesson 5: Be Willing to Compromise
The Enquirer article made it clear that Chris, Laurie and Bob were inviting a conversation instead of further alienating people who were on the other side of the issue. Compared to the radical protestors, they seemed like reasonable people who maybe park staff could work with.
Laurie and Chris started calling researchers and others who had used humane methods of deer population control. The two main ways are with birth control medications or with surgical sterilization. Research seemed to indicate that sterilization would be the most practical and effective option. They found an organization called White Buffalo with experience that was willing to help. This organization was led by a wildlife biologist and sharpshooter who admitted that sometimes non-lethal methods won’t work, and a deer cull might be the only option. But he was willing to help them give it a try. Many of the protestors broke off relationships with Chris and Laurie because sharpshooters, even ones trying to help, were seen as the enemy. As sometimes happens, there was a lot of anger as people who came together for a common cause splintered off into subgroups.
But as it turned out, the sharpshooter from White Buffalo helped save the deer.
Lesson 5: Involve Trusted Messengers and Draw on Social Capital
One of the requirements of Cincinnati Parks was that any humane population control plan be approved and permitted by Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Bob was a professional mediator with
a lot of contacts, and people knew he was respectful, open-minded and willing to be proven wrong. His social capital helped convene the right people for conversations. One of his connections was with a local state house representative who also served on a committee in the state legislature that dealt with ODNR, and Bob asked her to host a meeting between him, ODNR, the sharpshooter from White Buffalo, and the city park representative responsible for deer management, who was on a friendly basis with Bob before the deer controversy began. The state representative agreed and said her role was not to advocate, but to host.
Because of the respect the group had shown the park board, Cincinnati Parks had approved and sent a nice letter, at Bob’s request, encouraging ODNR to approve the pilot deer sterilization program. The employee who ran the bow hunting program even accompanied Bob to the meeting to lend his support.
