Animal Lovers Slam Vassar For Deer Extermination Plan

Vassar College has attracted attention from animal lovers after revealing a plan to bait deer with food and have sharpshooters eliminate them from their farm and ecological preserve.

The Daily Freeman reports that management officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will conduct the cull this month, but if protesters have their way it won't happen.

According to The Poughkeepsie Journal, college officials say that the overgrown population of deer have destroyed many parts of the farm and are making it difficult to use it for it's intended educational purposes. Fenced in areas of the college show how trees and other plants are flourishing, while unfenced areas are completely wiped out.

While the college plans on donating the venison from the kill to local food banks, protesters claim that the baiting and killing of deer is unsportsmanlike and unusually cruel to the animals. Protesters have unsuccessfully tried to stop previous culls in 2010 and 2013.

We want to know what you think. Do the protesters make a point about the cull being cruel to the animals? Or do you believe that this is the best possible way to handle an out-of-control deer population?