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Feeding the deer by hand isn't very smart
The first was a photo that appeared on the front page of this newspaper on Friday showing two women not just feeding deer in Washington Cemetery, but treating those deer as if they were family pets.
A closer look at the photo shows one of the women scratching the head of one of the animals, a small buck, as if it were the family dog.
I can't even begin to stress how wrong and dangerous an activity this is.
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Hunting is illegal in cemeteries in Pennsylvania and because of this and the abundance of easy food, both of the natural and unnatural kind, many deer live in the cemetery on a year-round basis. Not in the woods that surround it, mind you, but actually in the cemetery.
They are still wild animals and ones that carry illnesses such as Lyme disease and others that are common to deer.
In fact, all that feeding these animals does is cause them to congregate in large groups, thus giving them a greater opportunity to pass on diseases that are highly communicable and fatal to deer, such as the EHD virus that wiped out a large portion of the deer herd a few years ago.
Then there is the issue of safety.
On more than one occasion, I've gone through the cemetery to see people standing among the deer with their small children. Are they nuts or just nitwits in general?
People are killed every year by deer attacks. A Google search for "deer attacks on people" on the Internet turned up more than 150,000 hits.
They are especially dangerous during the fall mating season, known as the rut. Males become very aggressive and often act irrationally, just as females with fawns have been known to attack if they feel their offspring is being threatened.
The second thing I saw this week was a story that ties into the topic of feeding of wild deer. A man in Tannersville in northeast Pennsylvania was fined $3,000 and ordered to pay restitution after officers from the Pennsylvania Game Commission found him in possession of dozens of native birds and mammals.
According to the Associated Press, Stephen Andrew Moore, 46, pleaded guilty to 30 summary counts of illegal possession of various species.
Game officials say a tip led them to Moore's live-animal collection that included gold finches, purple finches, pine siskins, dark-eyed juncos, blue jays, sparrows, indigo buntings, rose-breasted grosbeaks, a cardinal, a brown-headed cowbird and a mourning dove. He also had three gray squirrels, two groundhogs and two raccoons.
Again, like feeding wild animals up close and personal, keeping them in your house as pets isn't very bright. And it's also illegal.
If you feel the need to feed wild animals, do so from the safety of your vehicle. And if that still isn't enough for you, there are plenty of petting zoos around that have tame game animals that have been raised as pets since birth. Or better yet, buy a dog or cat.
Feeding wild animals up close is tempting fate and really not very smart.
Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com
