The Pennsylvania Game Commission on Tuesday gave preliminary approval for homeowners' associations and nonprofit land-holding groups to apply for permits to kill deer on their property.
The regulatory change is part of the commission's effort to reduce the urban deer population. Under the rules, permits were limited to boroughs and townships.
The board gave final approval to a rule change that would allow hunters in Allegheny County to harvest more than one deer at a time. Normally hunters have to tag a deer before killing another one, but this allows the hunters to kill several deer at once before tagging them.
"In developed landscapes, lower deer populations result in fewer deer-human conflicts," said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director.
Since recreational hunting is not always possible in urban areas, Roe said alternative herd reduction tools could be used, such as controlled hunts and sharpshooting.
Roe said expanding the list of authorized deer control permit applicants "does not change the requirements of the review process, but it does make this tool available to more groups experiencing unacceptable levels of deer-human conflicts in developed areas."
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