WALKER, Mich. — Thousands of white-tailed deer roam Kent County. There's only one deer sheriff.
On opening day of firearm deer season in Michigan, Andy Albertson had hunters beat by mid-morning. In the back of his specially-made Kent County Road Commission truck, he had already put away sixteen of them. He had not shot them, though. They likely had been dead for hours, all hit by cars.
"Said it a million times, it's a strange way to make a living," Albertson said. "Picking up dead animals."
In 2023, Kent County led the state in deer-related crashes, a commonly-held title. While its local leaders currently work to manage the deer population, sending out surveys and forming a task force, Albertson sees the damage done by (and to) the state mammal.
"I don’t think there is an answer outside of putting cages on every road we drive on," he said. "I know we’re trying to work out a reasonable solution, but people have to go to work. Deer do what deer do. Right now, we’re at a violent crossroads."
In his 21 years at the Kent County Road Commission, Albertson has picked up deer for almost all of them. A general laborer at first, he initially did deer duty on the side. When more and more seemed to pile up on the county's highways and rural roads, it turned into a full-time career. He took on the title of deer sheriff.
"Somebody asked me if doing the deer thing was punishment for the day," said Albertson, recalling a past conversation. "I said, 'No, I do this every day.'"
When the leaves fall off the trees and white-tailed deer enter rut in Michigan, Albertson can collect around 15 to 25 carcasses a day. Plotting his route, he scribbles the locations of deer-related crashes on sticky notes that cling to his windshield, crossing them off as he makes his stops. When the truck is filled with hooves, flesh and the smell of decay, he drops off the deer at a landfill. Another member of the road commission does the same, working another part of the county.
It's a bloody task and dangerous to so often be idling on the side of a busy road, but Albertson does it nonetheless. It's "public service with a capital P," he says.
Over the years, the deer sheriff has packed the stat sheet. Thousands of carcasses every year. He passed the 40,000 mark a while back. Before he retires, he'd like to have removed 50,000 from Kent County's roads. Certainly, his title has been earned.
"You don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Scratch your head and you think, I can’t believe that’s what I’m doing and I can’t believe I’ve done that many," Albertson said. "I tease my hunting buddies. I'll outdo all of them on opening day by nine o'clock."
