A small "herd" of 8 deer bolted from in front of our garage doors when they saw me approach. I wasn't expecting them to be there, and they obviously weren't expecting me. I counted 7 deer running off to another part of our yard before this fawn started to come toward me. I gather this fawn saw a female, human face and then expected me to give her food as our next door neighbor does. No way!!!

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Although I'm a wildlife lover, enough is enough. We had no less than two dozen different deer pass through our yard today to get to the food and water that the neighbor puts out. Because of an epidemic of CWD, deer feeding is illegal in 2/3 of the counties in our state. However, at this point, our county isn't one of them. Unfortunately, feeding any wild deer can still have negative sides.

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"There are several risks associated with feeding deer, including:

1) Deer that become accustomed to being fed by humans may become aggressive towards people who do not provide them with food.

2) Human-provided food may contain unhealthy levels of salt or other ingredients that could harm the health of the deer population.

3) Feeding wildlife can spread diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD).

4) Destruction to suburban yards and local crops.

5) Deer can be carriers of diseases that effect both humans and pets."

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"White-tailed deer are the number one carriers of Lyme Disease in the United States; and we know that deer can spread ticks with the Lyme bacterium to humans and pets.

Some other of the top diseases from deer that can harm humans are Q fever, chlamydiosis, leptospirosis, campylobacterosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis, and giardiasis.

COVID can now be added to the list of diseases that a large percentage of white tail deer carry, but it is currently unclear if they can pass it back to humans.

To protect people and pets from deer diseases, it is recommended that homeowners push out deer from landscapes. Deer are fun to look at from afar; but the truth is that they carry diseases and should not be on lawns and gardens for family and pet protection."

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Before the next door neighbor started to feed the deer, we would occasionally have a single doe with fawns pass through our yard. Or sometimes a lone individual. Having deer in our yard was rare. They also didn't hang around. But now, we're up to 2 dozen individuals: coming and going, eating our flowers & trees, pooping and peeing, and camping out in every part of our yard every single day!!! Our yard has become a staging area for the deer to wait for the neighbors to put food out. Now, the deer are coming right up to our house.

Cute fawn above, but...