Should You Feed the White Tail Deer?

Cedar Grove, NJ - The town government and the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife have asked that residents do not feed the white tail deer in town.

Here are some reasons you shouldn't feed the deer:

• Feeding increases reproductive potential. - Deer with higher nutrition levels have larger litter sizes and breed earlier. Does dependent solely upon natural food sources generally breed at 1.5 years of age and give birth to a single fawn. Does with supplemental food breed at 6 months of age and give birth to one fawn; 1.5 year olds generally have twins, and triplets are not uncommon in older does.
• Deer lose their fear of humans. - In NJ, deer are considered a "potentially dangerous species" because of their ability to inflict serious physical harm to humans with their hooves and antlers. Male deer become more aggressive during the breeding season, and females may become defensive of their fawns. The last reported attack of a deer on a person was in 2012 in Lake Hopatcong, NJ. Deer that become problematic are usually euthanized.

Feeding enhances the spread of disease and parasites, and may compromise the health of non-target species. - Concentrating deer in unnaturally high numbers around food piles increases nose-to-nose contact and may heighten the transmission of pathogens and parasites. Additionally, large piles of supplemental foods like corn often develop toxic fungi, which cause ill effects to both deer and other animals that come to the food pile.

Love to garden? Have decorative flowers? Not for long with deer feeders around. Remember, "Deer feeders are bad neighbors. - Deer cannot meet all their nutritional needs from a food pile, and will consume the plantings of surrounding properties or devastate the surrounding natural environment after the supplemental food is consumed. Because feeding concentrates deer in unnaturally high numbers, environmental damage is often severe."

Additionally, New Jersey is engaged in a decades-long battle to keep Chronic Wasting Disease out of our heavily wooded state:

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a progressive and fatal neurologic disease affecting members of the Cervid family such as deer, elk, moose, and reindeer and is caused by an infectious protein called a prion (the same as in Rabies and Mad Cow disease). CWD results in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death, and is easily spread from deer to deer. It poses a serious threat to New Jersey's deer herds and eventually wears down and kills every infected animal.

CWD has so far been found in captive and wild deer in 26 states, with the closest known occurrence to New Jersey in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Preventing CWD from entering New Jersey is the Division of Fish and Wildlife's primary focus, and the Division aggressively monitors and tests for CWD in New Jersey's deer herd.

By feeding deer, we undermine efforts to keep our community safe to the detriment of both humans and deer.

In 2018, a proposed bill to make feeding white tail a deer illegal in the interest of public health (with an exception for hunters) was narrowly defeated.