For three years, hunters hired by the city have been shooting male deer on Staten Island with tranquilizer darts so the animals can be given vasectomies.

But Borough President James Oddo says the deer population isn't falling fast enough. As a result, he's talking about a new plan: a carefully controlled deer hunt, one where the hunters use bullets to kill them.

"I’m fearful of the tick-borne diseases,” Oddo said. “I am really fearful of the collisions because the experts say when you have a deer population that is this dense, these are the things that happen, and they’re happening right now."

Nearly 1,600 deer have been fixed on Staten Island since the vasectomy program began.

Over that time, the deer population has fallen 18 percent, to just under 1,800, from 2,200.

Parks officials have always said the vasectomy approach would lead to a gradual reduction.

Residents acknowledge they've noticed more deer with tell-tale numbered tags on their ears, but they say they haven't had fewer encounters with the animals.

"I’m seeing deer on the regular daily-basis,” said one Staten Islander.

"It’s too many going around," said another.

The borough president is meeting next week with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state Department of Environmental Conservation to discuss his hunting idea.

It's an approach he suggested four years ago, but City Hall rejected it because hunting is illegal in the five boroughs.

But he says the time for his idea, using trained government marksmen or some form of euthanasia, has come.

"I believe in a heartbeat this issue changes on a dime the moment somebody’s grandkid or grandmother is killed in an accident,” Oddo said. “Then all of the critics will be [like], ‘Why, government, did you wait so long?’"

But attempting to conduct an organized hunt wouldn’t have immediate results either. It is all but certain animal rights activists would take their fight all the way to court.

The borough president says he will observe a controlled hunt in New Jersey later this month to get a better idea of what would be involved. For now, city officials are seeking new bids for a contractor to run the deer vasectomy program for five more years.