Ethical dilemmas of fertility control in wildlife: the case of white-tailed deer

This paper explores ethical issues raised by the use of non-surgical, pharmaceutical fertility control to manage reproduction of white-tailed deer (WTD). A high density of WTD, especially in suburban areas, has led to human-deer conflicts, conflicts traditionally solved by hunting, Recently, however, there has been a push towards non-lethal control, especially fertility control. While the scientific and technical aspects are beginning to be well understood, the ethical issues raised require further exploration. The paper begins by discussing the challenges of high-density WTD populations, and the possibility of using fertility control as a response to these. Then the paper identifies major ethical issues raised, as viewed from the perspectives of animal rights, utilitarianism and concern for wildness. Our conclusion is that changes in human behaviour, rather than pharmaceutical fertility control to reduce deer populations, seem to ethically preferable from all three perspectives. However, it is less clear how pharmaceutical population control compares with hunting in ethical terms.