Laws to Stop Residential Feeding of Deer

We just had a deer hit us last month, note how I stated the deer hit us, not that I hit the deer. A tan flash in the dark and pow, it's over. So this deer is lying on the street half alive, flopping around, the Police come and plug it with a couple of Federal HP.45ACP's (I have the shells) in a residential area. Something to remember.

$1700 damage and my insurance agent says my rates will likely go up, thanks so much even though I have safe drivers rates, no accidents in 30+ years so far. By the way, most Insurance companies are doing this even though it's under Comprehensive. Great.

Then this week a deer darts out 20 ft in frt of us near my house and I'm reminded a couple of my neighbors down the hill feed them last winter and the same thing will happen this year.

States of Virginia and Colorado have laws to prohibit intentional placing or distribution of feed for large animals. There may be more.

I'm thinking about starting a grass roots effort in CT to do the same.

Does anyone know if any Towns in CT or other (Northeast) States have anti-feeding laws?

Thanks,

Ugly

Ugly,

You may not think of Maplewood NJ as having a deer problem but we have had both deer and bear in town! I'll be darned if I know where that bear came from, but he was up a tree next to the Country Club/Golf Course.
We're located in the highly populated ESSEX County a dozen miles west of NYC.

We are located next to South Mountain Reservation, a 2,000+ recreation, watershed, nature preserve, that had a far too large deer population. They were all over the place in evening & wee hours, foraging!

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0 ... st_or.html

In our town it is UNLAWFUL TO FEED ANY WILD ANIMALS...GET THIS: One of my neighbors had to appear in court because they had fed birds from a wild bird feeder..They were found GUILTY and fined $250.00 Two other neighbors had appeared as plaintiffs (One wacko was afraid of birds, and the other sick SOB said that the birds "might" poop on his crappy old PORSCHE) The couple feeding the birds could have been fined $1000.00 according to the statute that the equally sick SOB's who sit on the town council had passed.

I supposed if you fed dear you could be summarily executed...

Now, people feeding dear SHOULD be made aware that they are causing harm..through incidents such as yours and naturally they should stop feeding them.


Bob

Simple solution: extend the hunting season.

Now that MA has bleeding-hearts guiding all of Beacon Hill's lawmaking decisions, we have deer (causing property damage on roadways), beavers (making dams & causing more property damage), foxes & coyotes (stretches police thin when they eat some yuppie's dog) all over the place. Used to NEVER see any deer when hunting, let alone while driving!

Every once in a while, a bear or a moose will wander into the city, requiring more police presence ... when they could be doing more important things.....

They don't need to be fed, they help themselves to my garden every day now.

coaledsweat wrote:They don't need to be fed, they help themselves to my garden every day now.

Then there should be a law that states you are allowed to harvest what you grow

New York bans the feeding of deer, mostly in order to prevent the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.

You should only feed em if you're gonna shoot em.

coaledsweat wrote:They don't need to be fed, they help themselves to my garden every day now.

Yeah!

Richard

Its not too bad where I live in the Adirondacks.

Last year the deer ate the Christmas wreath on my front door.

Looked out on the deck and saw deer tracks and then noticed that most of the wreath was gone.

Here in New Yawk, we live in a village which is adjacent to a gigantic piece of state/fed land which wraps around West Point. Because of that "forest edge" status, we have a BIG deer problem. Like other areas, we have coyotes (a den on a mountainside 300yds from my front door -- they answer the 5:00 fire whistle!) and reports of the occasional bear.

But the deer are out of control. They're no fun to hit with a car, even less so on a motorcycle , they eat just about anything ornamental, and, except the bucks, they're generations south of being afraid to come near us.

Coyotes are supposed to be a natural deer predator -- and I'm sure they are, occasionally -- but they'd have to be in a goll-darned deer-eating contest to keep up with Bambi here. A healthy density for deer is about 10-15/sq mi; we're at about 70 here.

So a bunch of us got together year before last and formed an ad hoc "Deer Management Task Force" to see what options there were to address the problem. We consulted with NYS Dept of Env. Conservation people, who confirmed with a 10-min ride around the area that we have a significant "browse line," which is the vegetative "bowl cut" which deer overpopulation creates when they eat just about everything from the ground to about 6 feet. (This can be proven by erecting deer "exclosures" in the woods to show what vegetation grows when the deer can't get to it.) Gross indicators like the browse line are the best measure of the extent of a deer problem, as they don't seem to cooperate with census-takers. And, as it happens, that same broad ecological damage is the most powerful weapon in the "public policy" arsenal to justify disrupting the great deal Bambi now has. If we don't act, the argument goes, the deer will keep eating every tree sapling, every year, and, in a generation, the forest will be irrevocably changed, not only to our detriment but theirs too.

So, what to do? In digging around for answers, we found that, basically, there are three options for population control: 1) Professional marksmen with bait, 2) birth control, and 3) an ongoing hunting program. Montgomery County, MD, has been working on this for some time http://www.montgomeryparks.org/PPSD/Natural_Resources_Stewardship/Living_with_wildlife/deer/deer_index.shtm and we found a nearby community which has a lot of gov't-owned land but has figured out how to manage a useful hunt. http://www.townofpoundridge.com/documents/Deer%20Season%20Mailer.pdf Here is a site which addresses the issue generically: http://www.qdma.com/qdm/

The bottom line is that pros are expensive (and the one-time solution they offer has, at best, only a temporary effect) and birth-control is a joke, which leaves the third option of doing an ongoing conventional hunt. In NY, state law authorizes licensed hunters with the consent of the property owner to hunt for legal animals, in season, so long as there is more than 500 ft clearance from the nearest structure capable of being occupied by people which has NOT consented to the hunt. State wildlife people can help with doe permits and out-of-season hunting with "nuisance permits." On top of that, in my village, there is a generation-old anti-shooting ordinance, which prohibits even sling-shots from being used within the village limits. On that impediment, I caused as much aggravation for the Bambi set as I sometimes do here by doing a little research and discovering that the village ordinance was powerless to contradict the state hunting law which permits hunting as described above. (The legal doctrine is "pre-emption," which is the superiority of constitutions over statutes and federal over state; it doesn't nullify our village ordinance but it "carves out" an exception where it conflicts with "superior" state law.) But let me tell you: nobody in the Village government here is unhappy with me because my research solved a problem for them, not only without them having to cast any vote to authorize the hunt, but with the legal "cover" that they are powerless to prevent it.

Of course, "YMMV." But look carefully at state law and consult with your local hunt clubs. You may have a pretty handy solution closer than you think. And, if anybody finds a recipe for Great-grandma's venison goulash, could you please post it up?

Good work stockingful, properly done legal hunting is the best management tool wildlife officials have anywhere. I wish you could catch a bunch and send them up here, we are deer poor in this area. And the coyotes have no trouble staying ahead of the birth rate so it ain't changing anytime soon. Funny how the places that want deer the least have the most.

Kevin

I could give you a great mincemeat recipe!!

Hardly ever see deer anymore since a cougar took up residence. Also the gray squirrels have disappeared since a bobcat was seen in the neighbors yard.

Richard

KLook wrote:I could give you a great mincemeat recipe!!

Oh wow! My favorite! Can you post it in the "Recipes" thread?

Sure, I will get it from my mother and put it in. Mincemeat is like spagetti sauce, everyone seems to like what ma made when they were young. I have had a lot I liked and a lot I didn't.

Kevin

KLook wrote:Good work stockingful, properly done legal hunting is the best management tool wildlife officials have anywhere. I wish you could catch a bunch and send them up here, we are deer poor in this area. And the coyotes have no trouble staying ahead of the birth rate so it ain't changing anytime soon. Funny how the places that want deer the least have the most.

Kevin

I could give you a great mincemeat recipe!!

You could come down to Jersey and take a few back with you - we won't miss them at all. Knock on wood that I haven't yet hit any this year. I travel to work anywhere between 0345 - 0515 most days and it's heart stopping to encounter several most mornings. And selfishly, I'd really like to be able plant tulips someday.