Photo © Jeannette Louise Smith, No Killing Deer in  Arlington Arlington County will conduct the second year of its Deer Killing Program between December 2026 and February 2027. Last year, the sharpshooter contractor, Wildlife Resources, LLC, owned by Wesley Runion, slaughtered 26 deer, short of their intended goal of 90 deer. Killing operations will remain focused along the Potomac Corridor parks of Fort C.F. Smith Park and Potomac Overlook (NOVA Parks) and along the Four Mile Run Corridor parks of Barcroft, Glencarlyn, Bon Air, and Bluemont. During the evening deer kill, parks will be closed and secured and monitored by Arlington County Police and Park Rangers. Wildlife Resources, LLC sharpshooters will shoot deer from elevated tree stands aiming at the heart and lungs. KILLING IS NOT THE ANSWER! A PUBLIC LETTER TO THE ARLINGTON COUNTY BOARD Chair Matt de Ferranti, Vice-Chair Maureen Coffey, and Board Members, Takis Karantonis, Susan Cunningham, and Julius D. "JD" Spain, S...

    © Beth Howell     On October 26, 2026, I addressed the termination of deer sharpshooting contract with Wildlife Resources, LLC at the Arlington County Board Town Hall Meeting. Here is my two-minute statement: Esteemed County Board, Good Evening. I’m Jeannette Louise Smith, a lifelong Arlington resident and Volunteer Founder of No Killing Deer in Arlington . Our local parks are invaluable and enhance the quality of living for Arlington residents young and old. Citizens appreciate the prioritization and value you place on our local ecosystems. We are proud of our award-winning parks. We applaud your efforts to maintain, improve, preserve, and protect our local parks, so residents can enjoy our green spaces and programs to learn about nature and build a positive relationship with wildlife. Yet, the cumulative effect of these favorable and beneficial community assets is tainted by the Arlington Sharpshooting Program. Why are we laboring to enrich and vitalize - give ...

  People must build a connection with deer where humans are not the center of existence and the supreme authority. Articles about deer overpopulation, protecting biodiversity, forest regeneration, disease, and road safety appear in the media on a regular basis. Over the summer, I noticed an increasing amount of news sources reporting “deer overpopulation” in suburban and urban communities across the United States. It is disturbing how the media portrays “deer overpopulation.” They sensationalize “deer overpopulation” as if it were an apocalyptic crisis. The use of melodrama, polarizing rhetoric, emotional triggers, and simplified problem-solving provokes intense reactions and inflames the public. While there is no exact data tracking the precise number of American cities that kill deer to control populations, the selective slaughter of deer is progressively common. Cities, suburban townships, and municipal jurisdictions, actively conduct lethal deer removal. Even the United States ...

How humans choose to use scientific facts dictates our ethics, logic, and how we structure a peaceful society. Science values life and strives to improve it, not destroy it. Guns terminate biological life. Killing is driven by threat, survival, conflict, and malice. The decision to end life is a primal response, an act of aggression, and an exercise of domination and control, not scientific inquiry. Killing deer in Arlington, Virginia is a deliberate, savage act of violence. The Arlington County Government’s FY2026 adopted budget allocated $151,000 to the Arlington, Virginia Deer Kill Program. The FY2027 adopted budget allocated $76,000 to kill deer. $151,000 + $76,000 = $227,000. This money could and should have been used for a non-lethal deer fertility control program. The Arlington County Government fosters the preservation of human rights and protection of human life from violence. Killing deer to protect the environment is contradictory to Arlington County's proclamation...