SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Shaker Heights plans to add surgical sterilization to its deer management program for the first time this year, complementing the practice of culling the herd with sharpshooters that has been in place since 2016.
A pair of contracts totaling more than $112,000 are set to be introduced to City Council Monday, part of this year’s operation to curtail the city’s deer population.
The city will split 50-50 with Beachwood a $162,000 contract with Precision Wildlife Management to deploy sharpshooters to cull a combined 70 deer across both cities.
And Connecticut-based White Buffalo is asking $31,340 to capture and sterilize 15-20 female deer in the more densely populated southern section of the city, where sharpshooting is a challenge.
The combined approach offers immediate population reduction through culling while providing long-term control through sterilization, Shaker Heights Police Commander Timothy Kohanski wrote in a memorandum to council earlier this month.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources requires that any city implementing a sterilization program must pair it with a culling program.
Kohanski wrote in a memorandum to council that sterilizing 15 does can prevent the birth of up to 225 fawns over their lifetime of 10 years.
As part of the sterilization process, White Buffalo workers would set bait sites in the targeted area, then drive to each site in cars affixed with the company’s logo and fire a sedative dart affixed with GPS tracking at adult female deer.
Workers then drive the deer to a temporary surgical site that will be set up in the city’s service garage, where staff removes the deer’s ovaries in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes. The deer is then returned to the site where they found it and released.
The entire operation takes place on a single day, usually overnight.
White Buffalo has done similar work in South Euclid and in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The method is more effective than other sharpshooting alternatives because unlike immunocontraception, it does not require a booster after a few years. And unlike other forms of surgical sterilization, a doe with no ovaries no longer goes through heat cycles and does not attract new bucks looking for a mate.
The city launched its culling deer in 2016. It initially used the Shaker Heights Police Department before contracting with Precision Wildlife Management, a company started by retired Shaker Heights Police Lt. James Mariano.
A 2025 resident questionnaire showed that 70.51% of respondents described deer in the city as abundant or overabundant, and a similar percentage wanted to see the deer population decrease.
For the 2024-2025 season, Precision harvested 90 deer between Shaker Heights and Beachwood at a cost of $207,000 split equally between the cities.
The venison provided an estimated 13,600 meals through donations to the Cleveland Food Bank and the Geauga County Veterans Food Bank.
The proposed 2025-2026 program would cost less than the previous year, with the culling portion decreasing from $103,500 to $81,000 for Shaker Heights’ share. This reduction reflects the smaller target of 70 deer (down from 90) and the addition of the sterilization component.
The Wildlife Task Force unanimously supported the proposal on August 13, 2025, and the Safety and Public Works Committee approved it on September 4 by a 4-1 vote. The Finance Committee unanimously approved the request on September 15.
If council approves the contracts, Precision will begin baiting and culling around Dec. 1, 2025, with operations continuing until either 70 deer are killed or March 31, 2026.
Generative AI was used to organize and structure this story. It was reviewed and edited by Advance Local.
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