The animals (kaibab mule deer) were transplanted there close to 90 years ago, therefore they are not native. To the California lawmen, that means they are basically feral and invasive. So they killed them all. They had some great hunts over the past 40 years, I was there 2 years ago and it was truly amazing to see. In order to protect the local terrain, fox, skunk, and mice, they needed to eradicate all ungulates (elk and deer) that were not there following the last ice age...? They were not allowed to transplant them again, because of the CWD scare (the herd never tested positive for any and was genetically pure)
The power of the written idea....