The major lethal options for deer management are hunting, bow hunting, snipers, and a common nonlethal option is the use of contraceptives.  Hiring snipers and using contraceptives are costly and not effective if the deer population is of a large size and not contained.  Having snipers come and kill deer would bring the population level down to a desirable size but besides the expensiveness of it, one large-scale reduction in the population is not desirable.  The population would thrive after the event, allowing for more resources for each surviving deer, which will lead to better reproduction in the following spring.  Hiring snipers could control deer populations, not-to-mention render you bankrupt, if it is used continuously from year to year as a management technique.  In terms of contraceptives, it is still unknown how they affect the meat of deer and if they make it harmful for human consumption if a deer that was given contraceptives is killed and its meat eaten by a hunter.  Hunting, although a controversial topic, is a popular and effective management technique that stabilizes deer populations.  In areas within towns or where there are ordinances prohibiting the use of firearms, bow hunting is a preferred management practice in place of hunting.  

Places, like Helena, Montana, have a different method of deer management.  The Helena Police Department baits deer into clover traps.  Follow these links to find instructions to use clover traps and other trapping devices.   Once the police department finds a deer caught in a trap, someone shoots the caged deer with a bolt gun, which is "similar to the device used to kill cows in slaughterhouses" and proceeds to kill the deer.  I wonder what the reaction to this practice would be of persons who believe hunting to be inhumane.   Linda Heinberg, of New York, after comparing a very in depth description of gutting a deer to that of a Charles Manson murder, describes hunting as a "socially condoned violence". 

Maybe it softens the response to Helena's seemingly cruel method of management to know that the meat is donated to food pantries.  This giving venison, or deer meat, actually is becoming a trend in deer management programs.  A bill in Connecticut allows hunters to kill two more deer if the meat from the extra deer is donated to food pantries.  This is thought to combat three issues simultaneously: a lack of donations to food pantries, deer overpopulation, and transmission of lyme disease.  Another current issue in hunting involves the research of scientifically proven hunting wear invisible to deer.  In the research process, deer were given food pellets in return for vision tests in order to make a camouflage that does not look like the camouflage people have been wearing.  These studies have created a camouflage that, instead of appearing like leaves, looks like odd shapes and designs to the human eye but nonetheless is a material supposedly imperceptible to deer.