Overabundant deer populations in the absence of predators create welfare challenges for individual deer and ecosystems, requiring evidence-based management approaches.
Overabundant deer face welfare harms including malnutrition from overbrowsed habitat, increased parasite loads, and Lyme disease. Vehicle collisions cause traumatic injury and death. Population management that maintains deer at habitat carrying capacity improves the welfare of remaining individuals by ensuring adequate food. Hunting welfare depends on marksmanship - poorly placed shots cause protracted deaths. Contraceptive programs for accessible isolated populations avoid hunting welfare concerns but require repeated annual interventions. No management approach is perfect; comparative welfare assessment should guide method selection.