re: NY State deer population. I believe there has been a recent effort to donate venison to food pantries for hungry families. Hunters are given special permits to get more then the usual limit, provided they then take the extra kill to a butcher who has donated their services. The meat is cut and wrapped and distributed at food pantries.

This seems to me an excellent idea and much more sportsmanlike than the "lotteries" held in Massachusetts where "hunters" are allowed in semi-confined areas like the Quabbin to shoot the plentiful deer...talk about shooting fish in a barrel.