Monroeville considers ordinance to prohibit feeding wild animals

Monroeville Council plans to vote Jan. 10 on an ordinance that prohibits the feeding of wild animals and provides penalties for violations.

“This was something that came about for a couple of reasons, but what was really the genesis of it was that we had a coyote attack a pet, a dog, which led to discussions with the Pennsylvania Game Commission,” Mayor Nick Gresock said during council’s agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday.

According to the ordinance, feeding is applicable “whether intentionally or negligently” and addresses all substances that are “likely to attract, lure or entice wild animals.”

While providing food for deer is common, the ordinance gives examples of other animals including feral cats, raccoons, bears, foxes, groundhogs, opossums, skunks, reptiles and waterfowl.

Using feeders for wild songbirds will continue to be permitted, as long as the units are “at least five feet above ground level and utilized so as not to attract wild animals,” the ordinance states.

Coyotes, omnivorous canines with opportunistic eating tendencies, represent a primary concern.

“They are in the area, all throughout Pennsylvania, and one of the issues is that they tend to follow the game trails, or the food trails and feeding trails, of deer that are being unnaturally fed,” Gresock said. “The Game Commission is against wildlife feeding, and currently we don’t have any kind of way to solve these problems if we get them.”

First-time violators of the ordinance are subject to a written notice and an opportunity to abate the situation within 48 hours. Subsequent violations could incur fines of between $100 and $1,000, plus costs to the municipality.

The Game Commission publishes a “Please Don’t Feed the Deer” brochure that outlines a variety of potential dangers to the animals when receiving supplemental food, such as “increased disease risk, long-term habitat destruction, increased vehicle collisions, habituation to humans and alteration of other deer behavioral patterns.”

With regard to health considerations, the publication explains that deer gather in large densities for supplemental feeding, creating environments that increase risk for spreading the likes of tuberculosis, mange and chronic wasting disease, a fatal condition for which there are no treatments or vaccines.

“High concentrations of wildlife at feeding sites also attract predators,” the brochure states. “Animals expending energy to avoid those predators burn fat reserves that would have otherwise enabled them to survive the winter.”