CLEVELAND, Posted 6:15 p.m. November 18, 1998 -- The Cleveland Metroparks has won state permission to use sharpshooters to control the deer population in two reservations. But they will not be pulling any triggers just yet.

NewsChannel5 reports an animal rights group is standing squarely in the line of fire.

The plan is to shoot 300 deer in the Brecksville and Beford reservations to thin out a herd Metroparks authorities say is out of control and eating up essential habitats.

"The deer are not only literally eating themselves out of food but they are destroying the habitat that's available for other small mammals and birds that nest on the forest floor," says Jane Christyson, a Metro Parks spokesperson.

The division of wildlife agrees and granted the Metroparks a permit allowing them to shoot 300 deer on sight.

Opponents of the Metroparks deer control plan say, this is the first step toward all out hunting in the reservations and they claim there is no deer overpopulation problem.

Bonnie Vlach is leading the fight against the plan to shoot Metroparks deer and does not believe park figures, that put the deer population at 70 to 115 per square mile.

"They have no idea how many deer there are in the park, they really don't. These are all estimates they've come up with. The division of wildlife helping and adding figures in," says Bonnie Vlach, an animal activist.

The Metro Parks produced a video that shows what forest vegetation should look like with a normal deer population and what happens when there are too many deer feeding in reservations like Bedford.

"There's no way to move them. There are no birth control that's available right now, so the only opportunity cause they have no natural predators anymore is to take some of those deer out of the system," says Christyson.

But the park system will now have to state their case in court.

The animal rights group called "In Defense of Deer" plans to file an injunction to block any attempt by the Metroparks to shoot the deer.