Photo by Mr. T in DC

A National Park Service plan to cull Rock Creek Park’s hefty deer population with sharp-shooters had been put on hold pending resolution of a lawsuit filed by five residents and an animal rights group.

According to the group, In Defense of Animals, the park service has agreed not to shoot any deer until the lawsuit is ruled on; the park service asked that a judge rule by March 15, 2013 on whether it can proceed with its chosen method of cutting down on the park’s deer population, which is said to be four times higher than the park can handle. According to the group, some 157 deer could have been targeted for killing.

Since the shootings were supposed to occur during the winter, a spokeswoman with In Defense of Animals said that the group was confident that even if they lose their case, no shootings will likely happen until late 2013 or early 2014. Until then, they’d like to see the park service resort to non-lethal deer population control measures.

“We are pleased the National Park Service will not be killing deer in Rock Creek Park in a few weeks as originally planned, and hope that the agency will rethink its decision to kill any of this native wildlife and instead use less drastic measures to control any perceived overpopulation problem,” said Katherine Meyer, the lawyer for the group and the five residents.

The lawsuit said that killing the deer with sharp-shooters violated federal law. Additionally, the five residents who joined the suit claimed that they would suffer irreparable emotional damage if the deer were shot, so much so that one said that they’d have to sell their house and move away from Rock Creek.