Protesters Take Aim at Doe, Fawn Hunting : Animal Rights: San Diego County’s deer population has declined 87% in 40 years, claim activists, who are pushing for a comprehensive study of the animal.

About 20 animal-rights activists picketed a California Fish and Game Commission meeting Friday morning to protest deer hunting in San Diego County.

Armed with placards that said, “Conserve Wildlife--Harvest a Hunter” and “Shoot With Cameras, Not Guns,” the activists trooped up and down the 1300 block of Front Street in clear view of the hunters, politicians and conservationists going into the State Building to attend the meeting.

“This is a meeting to decide what to kill, how to kill it and how long to kill it,” said Sally Mackler of San Diego Animal Advocates, the group that arranged the protest to call for a countywide moratorium on the hunting of does and fawns. Unless San Diegans “stop shooting and start studying” their dwindling deer population, Mackler said, “there won’t be any left.”

Mackler and others contend that, because of drought, increased development and hunting in San Diego County, the local deer herd has declined 87% in 40 years. The last comprehensive study of deer population was completed in 1949, Mackler said, when 26,000 deer lived in the county. In 1988, the state Department of Fish and Game estimated only 3,400 deer remained.

The proposed moratorium on the hunting of so-called “antlerless deer” has won support from the county Fish and Wildlife Advisory Commission and the County Board of Supervisors. In a letter dated Feb. 8, Supervisor Leon L. Williams, the board chairman, urged the state Fish and Game Commission to suspend the antlerless deer hunt, usually held in October, until deer habitat and distribution can be studied.

On Friday, members of the state commission asked staff to study the impact of decreasing the length of deer season for all types of deer. The season extends five months, said Mackler, with 30 days allowed for hunting does and fawns. The commission will make its final decision April 26.

Karen O’Rourke, a councilwoman from Lemon Grove, said she was prompted to speak out about the dwindling deer population because she believes the county may be in danger of losing the quiet, graceful animals altogether.

“We own a weekend home in Mt. Laguna, and, in the three years of feeding and watering these deer, we’ve seen four,” she said. “Especially during these thirsty summers, if they were there, we’d see them. I don’t believe they’re there.

“In 1988, there were 8,200 (hunting) permits available (in San Diego County)--5,500 were sold to kill 3,400 deer. That’s ridiculous.”

Bob Turner, a Campo resident who said he is a lifelong hunter, agreed.

“The deer population is going down and down, and Fish and Game is making no effort to reverse that trend,” he said. “I’m from the old school--in my house, every gun is loaded. . . . But I want doe hunting stopped.”

Bill Kughn, a lobbyist for the Southern Border Archery Assn. and for the California Bowman Hunters and State Archery Assn., countered that a moratorium would “put the entire herd at risk.” Kughn said the main problem deer face in the county is that development has driven them to the backcountry, where older, less-nutritious plant growth provides them a poor diet.

“Hunting is a management tool,” he said. “It keeps the herd in check. . . . If they die on the ground of starvation, it’s a waste of a natural resource.”

Kughn also defended hunting and the people who enjoy it.

“We’re not good old boys who run through the woods with spears,” he said. “We’re normal family men. I enjoy the sport.”

Outside on the picket line, tempers clashed. As animal-rights activists strutted back and forth on the sidewalk with a banner that said “Stop Hunting Does and Fawns. No More Slaughter,” a hunter pushed past the banner, knocking it out of Stan Phillips’ hands. With fists clenched, Phillips and the hunter exchanged harsh words before the hunter went inside. Later, however, the two men shook hands.