I’m amazed this was allowed to happen.

Gus Burns of MLive reports.

University of Michigan-Dearborn contracted hunters kill 14 deer first day of special hunt

The University of Michigan-Dearborn campus and neighboring Wayne County park land has become a temporary and unlikely deer hunting oasis.

However, it’s not hunters, but rather “wildlife managers” who are firing the guns that took down 14 deer since the special hunting season began Tuesday. They’ll be hunting until 50 deer are killed or 11:59 p.m. Sunday, whichever comes first.

The university wants to cull nearly 2/3 of the herd, estimated during an aerial helicopter survey in January to be 76. The herd grew from about 57 a year earlier.

The deer reside between a 300-acre University of Michigan-Deaborn Environmental Interpretive Center and a smaller plot of county-owned land.

“Our biologists have noticed … that the environment has been changing over the years,” university spokesman Ken Kettenbeil said Thursday.

He said the deer eat unique plants and seedlings and destroy research equipment, like netting used to capture, tag and release various birds.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources Study determined a healthy herd in the location should number between 5 and 10, Kettenbeil said.

The culling company, Berg Wildlife Management, is charging $300 per deer killed, removed and processed. The meat is then being donated to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Gleaners food bank in Detroit in “a couple of weeks.”