The city limits of Jefferson City and three other Missouri cities are no safe haven for deer this hunting season.
The urban hunting season, which began Friday and ends Monday, was instituted in 2003 because of a growing deer population in urban areas and an increase in deer-related traffic accidents.
The MDC scheduled the urban hunting season in Jefferson City, Columbia, Kansas City and Springfield.
In 2011, the counties surrounding Kansas City had 487 deer-related accidents. In Jefferson City and Cole County, there were 68. The Columbia-Boone County area had 62; the counties near Springfield had 61 total accidents.
"We found that around urban areas, deer/vehicle accidents were at a level we were not happy with," said Jim Low, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "The difficulty in controlling those numbers made us institute urban deer season as antlerless only to help control the population for next year."