Residents in the village of Sag Harbor are battling to remove deer from their property but are faced with what they say are conflicting state and local laws.
State law allows bow hunting for deer on private property as long as the hunter is licensed, has the owner's permission, and does not hunt within 150 feet of a building on an adjacent property. But Sag Harbor passed a law last year that bans the hunting altogether.
Lawyer and deer hunter Christian Killoran is suing Sag Harbor for passing an ordinance he says it had no right to take up. "A village cannot supersede a state law. If you had that, you would have villages acting on their own accord saying they don't agree with state law," Killoran says.
The mayor of Sag Harbor was not available to comment.
Some residents who spoke with News 12 seemed split on the issue. John Schroeder says people who hunt in neighborhoods like his where the houses are close together could put people and children at risk.
But neighbor John Linder says deer are overpopulated and put drivers at risk.
The village ordinance hasn't been enforced until this past weekend, when police gave a hunter a summons for deer hunting in Linder's backyard.