The Wall Street Journal - 02.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Friday, August 2, 2019 |A9B

Corey Bruggeman, left, who has been hunting for more than 30 years and favors a deer cull, practices at the Willowbrook Archery Range.

TYLER BLINT-WELSH/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Juan Rodriguez was supported in court by family members.

MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRONX

Grand Jury Action

Delayed in Car Deaths

Prosecutors need more time

to investigate the heatstroke

deaths of year-old twins left in a

parked car before deciding

whether to proceed with

charges against the children’s fa-

ther, a judge was told Thursday.

An assistant Bronx district

attorney said at a court hearing

that there had been no grand

jury action so far against the

victims’ father, Juan Rodriguez.

Another hearing was set for

Aug. 27, when Mr. Rodriguez

could learn whether he will be

prosecuted for what his lawyer

calls a tragic mistake.

Mr. Rodriguez, 39 years old,

was arrested on charges of

manslaughter, criminally negli-

gent homicide and endangering

the welfare of a child last week

after he discovered the bodies of

his daughter Luna and son

Phoenix still strapped into their

car seats in a vehicle after he

worked an eight-hour shift.

Court papers say the dis-

traught father told police: “I

blanked out. My babies are dead.

I killed my babies.”

Mr. Rodriguez, who is out on

$100,000 bail, didn’t speak at

the hearing on Thursday. The

courtroom was filled with his

wife and other supporters who

describe him as a devoted father

who is suffering enough.

Defense attorney Joey Jack-

son told reporters Mr. Rodriguez

didn’t intend to kill his babies.

“Mr. Rodriguez is heart-wrenched

and heartbroken,” he said.

—Associated Press

NEW JERSEY

Assisted Suicide Law

Goes Into Effect

A New Jersey law allowing

terminally ill patients to seek

life-ending drugs went into ef-

fect Thursday.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy

had signed the bill in April.

The Medical Aid in Dying for

the Terminally Ill Act in New Jer-

sey allows only patients who are

terminally ill and have a progno-

sis of six months or less to live

to acquire medication to end

their lives.

The legislation has several

measures that legislators called

safeguards, including requiring

patients to make two requests

and allowing them a chance to

rescind the request.

—Associated Press

NEW YORK

Law Lets Stalking

Victims Hide Address

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo

on Thursday signed a law that

will allow sex-crime and stalking

victims to hide their home ad-

dresses from public view, making

it harder for their abusers to find

out where they live.

The new law expands a state

address-confidentiality program

that already had existed for do-

mestic-violence survivors. It al-

lows victims to use a substitute

address provided by New York’s

Department of State on certain

official records. The law takes ef-

fect in 90 days and also applies

to victims of human trafficking.

—Associated Press

Parks & Recreation launched a

vasectomy program in 2016.

White Buffalo, a Virginia-

based company the city hired

to perform the vasectomies at

a cost of $4.1 million for three

years, said in January the deer

population was at 1,737, a 15%

drop from the 2,053 counted in

2017. About 98% of male deer
      in the borough have been ster-
      ilized so far, and the city said
      it is finalizing a new five-year
      contract with White Buffalo.
      “We are at the end of a
      three-year program that has
      shown success,” said Sarah Au-
      coin, the chief of education and
      wildlife for the parks depart-
      ment. “Killing hundreds of deer
      was, and still is, a last resort.”
      Staten Island Borough Presi-
      dent James Oddo, a vocal critic
      of the vasectomy program,
      supports a bow hunt. He said
      he is frustrated by the slow
      progress in lowering Lyme dis-
      ease-contraction rates, reduc-
      ing the record-high number of
      deer-to-vehicle collisions in
      the borough and minimizing
      deer overfeeding in forests.
      Paul Curtis, a wildlife spe-
      cialist at Cornell University
      who consulted with the city on
      its deer-management plans in

2015, is skeptical about how

progress is measured.

“I wouldn’t consider that a

success because at 15% to 20%

drop, you’ll probably see very lit-

tle difference in deer collisions,

no difference in deer damage or

foraging on sensitive plant com-

munities, and no difference in

Lyme disease rates,” he said.

When the city discussed

deer-management plans in

2015, the state Department of

Environmental Conservation

didn’t recommend the vasec-

tomy program, “as fertility-

control programs are expen-

sive and have not been proven

effective, especially when con-

ducted on male deer.”

Mr. Oddo said he called for a

cull at that time too, but there

were concerns from city offi-

cials about killing deer in city

parks, which make up the bulk

of Staten Island’s green space.

State-owned land is a small

part of the borough’s green

space. Mr. Oddo said he hopes

he can finalize plans for a bow

hunt on state land by the end

of the year, as long as wildlife

experts indicate that it could

have a meaningful impact.

A bow hunt likely would be

carried out by Staten Island

residents who obtain a permit

and take a test assessing their

hunting skills.

Chris Kiladitris, a seasoned

hunter, said that while he finds

the vasectomy program inhu-

mane, a bow hunt on Staten Is-

land would be a safety concern.

“There’s no place hunters can

go and not worry about some-

one else coming into the forest

with them,” he said.

Marisa Semioli, a 26-year-

old Staten Island nurse, said a

hunt is the most humane way to

curb the deer problem. She said

she has been practicing with

her compound bow to prepare

for her first season in the fall.

“I’d much rather a deer die

and be used for food and hunt-

ing purposes, as opposed to it

getting hit by a car, suffering,

and laying out in the middle of

the expressway,” she said.

During the past three years,

New York City has made some

headway controlling the deer

population on Staten Island

through a vasectomy program.

But some borough residents

and politicians say the surest

way to reduce the population

is to declare a bow hunt.

“You need to remove the

deer. And I don’t mean relo-

cate. They need to be taken

out,” said Corey Bruggeman, a

longtime Staten Island resi-

dent and bow hunter.

The deer population has ex-

ploded on Staten Island during

the past decade as the leafy

borough has become an ideal

habitat for the animals. Staten

Island has no natural deer pred-

ators and more than 9,000 acres

of green space, officials say.

The animals have been cap-

tured on video swimming from

New Jersey across the Arthur

Kill waterway to get to Staten

Island. The deer spread Lyme

disease from ticks, cause traf-

fic accidents and damage the

area’s delicate forest ecology,

wildlife experts say.

To decrease the deer popu-

lation, the city’s Department of

BYTYLERBLINT-WELSH

Staten Island Bow Hunt Proposed

‘You need to remove

the deer. And I don’t

mean relocate. They

need to be taken out.’

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