LENEXA, Kan. -- Opponents of a plan to allow some people to shoot deer in Shawnee Mission Park are upping their efforts to prevent the killings.

The Johnson County Parks Board has already decided it will allow off-duty law enforcement officials to shoot deer in an effort to lower what they say is overpopulation. The board will finalize the plans for the shooting allowance at tonight's regularly scheduled meeting.

Opponents of the shootings have recently put up a billboard in downtown Kansas City, Mo., to protest them. The billboard reads, "Don't let your tax dollars become blood money."

The protesters said they plan to be at tonight's meeting.

The people who believe the city needs to take care of the population problem said the deer are not only a nuisance for homeowners, but unsafe. They said the deer are spreading diseases.

"Things like bloodlust and ineffective are just not true," Shawnee resident Michael Eagan said at a July parks board meeting. "Not only is this a necessary cull, but it's the only effective way to do it."

However, others had strong words against the plan.

"What you're about to do, gentlemen, is unholy and ungodly," Shawnee resident Vicki Needham said at the July meeting.