Updated 5 p.m. March 16

Lakeway's city manager suggests there may be new public discussions before next fall's deer management season.

"It's been a controversial issue; we may want to [bring it up] before we trap again," Steve Jones told Community Impact Newspaper.

The city of Lakeway's mayor March 9 responded to recent community concerns regarding the city's urban deer population and management.

On March 8, a video surfaced that showed several deer trapped under a large net. The video is posted on the website of the Virginia-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and had been viewed more than 27,000 times as of March 16 when this post was updated.

An "action alert" posted on the PETA site calls for the city to end its current practice of "trap, transport and process."

"Despite an ongoing public outcry, officials in Lakeway reportedly have once again hired a contractor to lure deer into traps made of netting and then truck them 80 miles away to be shot in the head and butchered," PETA's web post read. "Lethal initiatives like this tear wild families apart, leaving young or weak animals vulnerable to prolonged and agonizing deaths from starvation and dehydration."

Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain responded on his regular blog to what he called "bad press" about the deer management program the city uses.

"The fact is, there are only 3 choices by state law. The three options are no management, trap transport and transplant or trap transport and process," Bain wrote.

"No management is irresponsible and shortsighted. The population (per Texas Parks and Wildlife and Wildlife Biologists we have talked to) increases by about 35 percent per year-the only natural predator is auto impacts. In 7 to 10 years we would once again be overrun by an excessive deer population."

Calls to Lakeway Police about car-deer collisions doubled to 90 in calendar 2016-2017 from the previous  year's 42. The city averages 52 car-deer collisions annually, according to city records.

CAFA billboard over RM 620

On March 7, motorists driving along RM 620 in Lakeway began seeing another view of deer, featured on an anti-trapping billboard ad erected through donations collected by the local advocacy group, Citizen Advocates for Animals. The message, featured on the group's Facebook page, will be up for eight weeks.

"We haven't heard any complaints," CAFA board memberRita Cross said. "It's a needed thing. A lot of people in Lakeway who just aren't aware of the trapping situation, that's what [the billboard] went up for, to educate people."

Cross said the mission of the three-year-old nonprofit is to shift what she called a mindset of city elected officials who have always looked at the deer removal issue one way.

"They don't care what the people of Lakeway want," Cross said. "Our goal is to stop the cruelty altogether, permanently."

The PETA web post featured a link to what it calls more humane options for urban deer control. CAFA members have spoken at several recent City Council meetings. Council has taken no recent action on the subject.

The city of Lakeway has a permit with TPWD for its deer management program and is limited to trapping 250 deer annually. Beginning in 1999 the city began removing deer, averaging 63 a year including last year when 56 animals were trapped. This year, in the Oct-March trapping period, 99 deer were removed. The number excludes carcasses city Public Works crews remove. Last year, that totaled 192. The removal program costs the city an average $25,487 per year, city records show.

Removed animals are donated to agencies that use the meat. On average, that totals 1,863 pounds annually since the city's program began.

A city web page dedicated to the deer issue reads "the city's deer management program has been successful in achieving manageable deer populations for more than 15 years. In addition, it is considered by Texas Parks and Wildlife, and independent wildlife biologists, as one of the most successful urban deer management programs in the state of Texas."

Bain concluded his March 10 blog post indicating the city recently received a deer survey contracted by CAFA. He acknowledged the survey is another data point that can be used to determine if the herd is growing or shrinking.

Jones said he is open to contracting with the same biologist to count Lakeway's deer herd next season, saying it would be worth spending the money to get an estimate on how many deer are in the urban area.

"We use several methods to determine if the herd is growing or shrinking and [city officials] believe it has been stable for several years. Texas Parks and Wildlife agrees with us," Bain wrote.

Editor's note: This post was updated to include new comments from the Lakeway city manager and CAFA.