There are various instances where birth control has been utilized by local governments as a means of non-lethal animal population control. In South Africa, after culling ceased in 1995, an elephant population of 8,000 has been steadily growing at six to seven percent annually to about 20,000 currently and is expected to double by 2020. South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has suggested birth control as a way to avoid the government sanctioned killing of the invasive mammal. In India, immuno-contraceptive vaccines (ICV) have been implemented to stem the rampant procreation of dogs. Officials in Kendrapara have authorized ICVs to quell its hound population that has been ravaging newborn marine turtles and unhatched eggs on nesting ground sanctuaries along the Gahirmatha coast. And in the northeast, Guwahati city leaders have taken steps to curb fertility in stray canines, fearing rabies infections from dog bites, by subsidizing NGOs that sterilize and immunize the abandoned animals. (Approximately 66,000 have been vaccinated since 2005.)
A recent domestic case of nonhuman contraception occurred in Santa Monica, CA, where an overabundance of squirrels has led the city to embark on unisex sterilization methods that incapacitate ovulation and lactation in females and testicular development in males. Santa Monica has been cited five times by Los Angeles County for its copious squirrel population.
Arguments against these tactics range from the scientific (not every animal will be affected, thus leading to immunity to ICVs in future generations) to the moral (increased susceptibility to diseases and cruel side-effects to the treatment). But it’s just one tool dictating the complicated balance between humans and wildlife.
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