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The association understands you have a soft heart and good intentions, but feeding deer is not in their best interests, or yours.

 

Depending on what you feed them, deer may actually be harmed by your feeding. Some foods will kill them within a few days or debilitate them enough to be easy targets for predators and automobiles.

 

Feeding is a way of domesticating deer. Tame deer create a host of other problems. Because they no longer fear people, they become vulnerable to hunters. They are emboldened to eat the shrubs in your vicinity. They will bring more deer into your yard and more deer ticks. And, concentrations of deer attract coyotes and other predators—who will kill your pets along with the deer.

 

Deer adapt very easily to people, but they don’t need to be fed by them. They survive fine on their own. Better, in fact. Usually the weather controls deer populations, but deer fed by people increase regardless of the weather. This leads to overpopulation and disease.

 

Deer browsing in the back yard may be charming, but Lyme disease and road kill are not. Please don’t feed the deer; let nature do its job.