Bloomington City Leaders Consider Fine For Feeding Deer

Source: (Photo by Ingolf König-Jablonski/picture alliance via Getty Images)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Deer populations are increasing in and around Bloomington.

Experts with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources believe that the reason is that people are feeding deer. Whether it’s leaving some sort of deer feed out in their yards or through other means.

City leaders in Bloomington are now considering an ordinance that would levy a fine on people who are caught feeding deer. It would be a $50 fine if passed by the Bloomington City Council. Though supporters admit it would be tough to enforce, experts say it may be necessary.

“If you think about it from the deer’s perspective. There is food and water there. It’s a very safe area because there aren’t a whole lot of predators around,” said Joe Caudell, a deer biologist with the Indiana DNR.

He said people feeding deer is causing deer populations to go up around Monroe County, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Too many deer could mean overgrazing of forests and other natural sources of food for other animals.

On top of that, it is also posing a health risk to the deer themselves, according to Caudell.

“Sometimes people will try to feed them hay,” he said. “Deer don’t eat a lot of grass. That’s actually a very small part of their diet.”

He said people have also been trying to feed deer corn, fruit, grain, nuts, wheat, and vegetables, all of which are not typical things in a deer’s natural diet. Caudell said deer are typically supposed to eat leafy plants in the summer and woody twigs during the winter. He said deviating from that natural diet can be hard for deer to adjust to and can cause many health complications.

Finally, human-to-deer feeding can also cause some human diseases to spread to deer.

The proposed fine on feeding deer will be discussed at the next Bloomington City Council meeting on August 16th.