Is It Illegal To Feed Wild Animals In Pa

WEST MIFFLIN — Gary Livingston has one thing to say to the Pennsylvania Game Commission about its proposal to ban big game feeding: Endeavour and stop me.

"They're going to take to have me to jail considering I've been doing information technology for so long. Plus, it's on my holding," said Livingtson, 69, of West Mifflin.

A Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, Livingston lives on xviii acres not far from the Allegheny County Airdrome. The surface area is populated with white-tailed deer and wild turkey, both of which come on his property to feed on the 700 pounds of corn he puts out weekly.

Livingston said feeding and watching the wildlife is therapeutic for him. "I'd rather be around these animals than people," he said.

The country Game Commission wants to ban what Livingston is doing — a pastime for tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who alive in semi-rural areas — because of the conventionalities that it leads to the unnatural congregating of animals and the spread of disease.

"Illness transmission is probably at the forefront of the bug related to wild animals feeding. Habituation is some other," said Mike Steingraber, state game warden supervisor for the commission's North Primal Region.

Habituation is divers every bit the tendency for wildlife to become less wary of humans, while at the same fourth dimension becoming dependent on humans, he said. Habituation also leads to nuisance issues in areas where people live and rubber issues on roadways.

Simply the biggest business concern driving the wild fauna feeding proposal is the spread of chronic wasting disease, or CWA. The progressive, fatal disease has been found in the wild deer population in ten of Pennsylvania'due south 67 counties.

The escalation of the affliction in Pennsylvania over the past decade has prompted state game authorities to set Disease Management Areas, or DMAs, where specific hunting regulations utilize and where wildlife feeding is illegal. The game commission recently expanded DMA 2 to include well-nigh of Somerset County and a small portion of northeast Westmoreland County.

In addition to enlisting the assistance of hunters, the country wants the public to be more aware of how wildlife feeding affects animal beliefs and tin have unintended consequences.

"We all know information technology's a fact (that) when you besiege any species in an area, the threat of disease manual goes college," said Patrick Snickles, state game warden supervisor for the commission'due south Southwest Region.

The feeding ban proposal was tol be discussed at a public meeting Wed at the Delmont Volunteer Fire Department. If enacted, it would extend the current ban on feeding behave and elk to include deer and turkey.

"Information technology's a contentious issue, merely information technology'southward an important issue that needs to exist addressed," Steingraber said.

Favorite pastime

One of the reasons a ban is being discussed is because wildlife watching, facilitated past wild animals feeding, is a favorite hobby for millions of Americans.

In 2016, an estimated 59.1 one thousand thousand Americans engaged in some form of wildlife watching tied to wildlife feeding, whether with bird feeders or some other form of feeding, according to the 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Related Recreation by the U.South. Fish & Wild animals Service.

Of that number, 97% fed wild birds and 25% fed other wild fauna, co-ordinate to the survey.

While wildlife baiting — the practice of using food for the express purpose of hunting the deer that come — is already illegal in Pennsylvania, wildlife feeding is the favorite practice of many non-hunters, Snickles said.

"A lot of people merely enjoy the aesthetics of having deer in the thou. They like to feed deer then they can see deer," Snickles said.

Livingston, the Vietnam veteran, buys corn in 50-pound bags from Pritts Feed Mill in Mt. Pleasant. The feed manufactory as well sells a "sweet feed" that is popular with deer watchers, said possessor Willy Pritts. Sweetness feed contains, among other things, corn, oats and molasses.

"All the stuff they swallow out in the field," he said.

Pritts said wildlife feeding is more popular than ever, and trying to curtail it is an exercise in futility. Sales of deer feed at his mill take increased past twenty% in the last 10 years, he said.

"There'due south more people feeding deer because they like to see the deer than in that location are hunters feeding deer," he said. "At that place's more animate being lovers than animal hunters anymore — even if the Pennsylvania Game Commission won't admit it."

While Pritts said he'due south neutral on the proposed feeding ban, he doesn't come across how it tin can be enforced or how information technology will modify deer behavior. For one thing, because of the spread of bourgeoisie and people'south penchant for moving to the "country," it's as well late to finish the habituation of deer, he said.

"The deer have learned to look both means before crossing the road," he said.

Pritts believes overpopulation is the real issue and that education, not regulation, is the best way to control wildlife feeding.

The proposed ban would non use to bird feeding, food plots — small pieces of belongings planted with crops specifically for deer consumption — or regular agricultural activity, Steingraber said.

"There will exist no alter to the game commission's position on food plots — they are still an effective method of wildlife direction," he said. "When y'all dump a large pile of food, it congregates (deer) a lot tighter than in a field of corn."

Source: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2019/08/10/proposed-ban-feeding-wildlife-irks-some-pennsylvania/1975047001/

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