Tega Cay will spend another $35,000 to kill 80 deer. But hundreds remain.
Tega Cay will spend as much as $35,000 more taxpayer dollars to cull an additional 80 deer this year in hopes of containing an animal residents say remains out of control.
The city council voted 3-2 vote Monday night to spend the additional money. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources approved a city request Jan. 16 to shoot more deer.
Tega Cay has already spent around $294,000 in the past year on deer management, according to figures provided to The Herald by Gretchen Kelly, Tega Cay spokesperson. A sterilization program for 200 deer last year cost $268,677, and previous culling costs were $25,600, Kelly said.
It remains unclear when Lowcountry Wildlife Specialists will do the next round of culling, Kelly said. The shooting will only be done on city property, she said. The company handled the last culling in mid-December when 80 deer were killed, city figures show.
Council members Tom Hyslip, Scott Shirley and Carmen Miller voted Tuesday in favor of spending another $35,000, while Mayor Chris Gray and councilman Brian Carter voted against it. The discussion and vote during the city council meeting was broadcast on the city’s YouTube channel.
Shirley said Tega Cay’s deer population in 2024 had reached 15 times what wildlife experts see for areas that want deer control. Both he and Miller said spending another $35,000 is a sound investment that is part of a long-term solution.
Gray and Carter said in the meeting the city had already spent enough money this year on deer.
Tega Cay deer problem dates back a decade
Tega Cay is a city of around 13,000 people along Lake Wylie close to the Charlotte border. Residents have complained for at least a decade that a too-large deer population affects traffic collisions, pets, plants and the waste animals leave behind.
The latest city survey in August 2024 put the deer population at over 1,000 animals.
City leaders and wildlife advocates spent years looking at ways to lower the population in a humane way. Officials decided on using both culling and sterilization. In the sterilization, deer were shot with a tranquilizer then treated by a veterinarian before the female deer were spayed. The deer were then returned to where they were taken from.
The deer meat from culling is donated to the Catawba Nation.
