If Joseph Lhota becomes New York City’s next mayor, Big Apple residents might be able to deer hunt on Staten Island (one of the city’s five boroughs). The leading republican candidate recently said that if he becomes mayor, he would consider bowhunting as a solution to the island’s growing deer population.
From the Staten Island Advance:
_”With reports of deer sightings growing across the city, including on the Island, Lhota said, ‘You do need to do something to control the growth of the deer population.’
‘The next mayor is going to have to figure out how hunting is going to work,’ said Lhota, who hunts deer upstate … Current law prohibits hunting within the five boroughs, but bow-hunting is permitted in Suffolk and Westchester counties and elsewhere.”_
There’s no solid figure for the number of deer on Staten Island but the Advance newspaper estimated “hundreds.” Staten Island is home to about 470,000 people and spans 58 square miles. It has hundreds of acres of federal, state, and local park land.