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A plan hatched last year by the National Park Service to cull the deer population in Rock Creek Park by shooting them has been put off for the time being by the threat of the lawsuit, and over the weekend two scientists wrote in the Post that a much less deadly solution exists to control the deer population—birth control:

But even if there were a problem in this park, there are far more humane — and effective — ways to control urban deer populations than killing, which can increase reproductive success within the remaining herd and create room for deer from neighboring areas to move into. As the authors of many peer-reviewed scientific studies on this issue, we know that fertility control is, over the long term, a more effective and publicly acceptable way to deal with urban deer problems. One fertility-control vaccine, porcine zona pellucida (PZP) — which can be administered by shooting the animal with a dart — is safe for deer and for predators, scavengers and any humans who happen to consume venison from a treated deer; it is a natural protein that degrades in the deer’s body after injection, and if eaten, it is destroyed in digestion.

In preparing a plan the cut down on the amount of deer roaming the park—which officials say is roughly four times what the park can handle—the Park Service argued that sharpshooters working at night would be most effective. But the two scientists, Jay Kirkpatrick and Allen Rutberg, argue that shooting deer would only make them fearful of humans and thus make it more difficult to administer contraceptives to those that remain.

There are some 375 deer roaming the park, 157 of which would be targeted for killing under the Park Service’s initial plan. Unless the Park Service changes course and a lawsuit against them is dismissed, any shootings of the deer could be delayed until next winter.