Lisa Tolentino was leaving Todd’s Independent in Haliburton with a cart full of groceries one recent winter night when a stealthy visitor approached her from behind.
“The whole thing freaked me out,” she said this week.
Her encounter was with a young deer, whom Monika Melichar of Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary calls ‘Mooch.’
Tolentino said she is not afraid of deer, but there were only three vehicles in the snowy parking lot on that stormy night and the deer seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Have you seen Leave the World Behind? There’s this scene where all the deer close in on the women,” she added with a chuckle. The 2023 American film revolves around two families as they try to make sense of a rapid breakdown in phones, television, and other common technology, which points to a potential cataclysm.
“I turned around and he was right there. it just scared me. I didn’t see him come to the car. He was sniffing in my groceries. He was looking for apples or whatever. I thought, ‘this is really aggressive, I can’t believe this’.”
While she felt guilty, as the deer might have been starving, she said she knows better than to feed them.
Dysart enforcing feeding bylaw
She also wonders if Dysart’s deer feeding bylaw has contributed to ‘Mooch’ and other deer coming into town looking for food.
She snapped a photo and posted to Facebook – her most read and commented-on post in a long while. The feedback ranged from people telling her to feed it apples; to others saying they were in the process of cooking venison. “Two extremes: ‘oh, how cute, feed them’ and ‘let’s feed them so we can kill them’.
“I purposely did not feed him because I know it’s not the right thing to do. I felt badly if he may have been starving, especially in the winter, but I am aware that it is not good for anybody on a whole bunch of levels.”
Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary PSA
Melichar is advising people not to interact with, or give ‘Mooch,’ or any deer, food.
“He is looking for hand-outs and people are feeding and petting him and he is becoming way too tame,” she said. Lift your spirits at the WINTER SNOWFLAKE DINNER & DANCE What Wood Stove
“It’s important that we get the word out that this is like killing him with kindness, and it’s only fun until someone gets hurt.”
Melichar is scratching her head since she said there have been numerous media reports about why people should not pet and feed deer.
She is worried the new Dysart deer feeding bylaw is not being enforced enough and the fines are too low. She added people are getting away with feeding by saying they are baiting for deer hunting.
“People are catching on. Don’t get me wrong, there are people who understand and will follow this because they care about the deer. But the people who only care about themselves and their own little ego of having all these cuties come into their backyard are the ones that we have to somehow try and sway,” Melichar said.
Haliburton Highlands OPP had to euthanize a deer after it was struck by a vehicle in front of the new A&W on County Road 21 on Monday morning, but Melichar does not think it was ‘Mooch’. However, OPP Const. Rob Adams said, “the car/ deer collisions are significant in the County.” OPP had to dispatch the deer as it had broken legs.
Deer feeding bylaw
Hailey Cole is the Dysart bylaw supervisor.
She said they are continuing to enforce the bylaw and they are getting complaints.
“There are some people who have received tickets who are opting to stop feeding deer; and that is great, we have compliance. There are other people who just say, ‘give me a ticket and I’ll continue on my way’. Some people consider it a hobby and they are willing to pay whatever need be for their hobby.”
She said there were very few people who had only received one fine and, “anybody who is still feeding has received multiple fines.”
As for people saying they are baiting deer for hunting, Cole said the township does not have the authority to supercede the province. “People saying they are baiting for a lawful hunt; if there is a reasonable amount of wooded area on their property, and they have a hunting license and a tag, then during hunting season we’re hands-off.”
But, at this time of year, she said they would not be accepting baiting as an exemption. “We need to see the tag.
“We are enforcing the deer feeding bylaw actively. We try to get out as quickly as we can, as often as we can, but we’re not a deer feeding enforcement department; we’re bylaw enforcement. We are also dealing with parking, shortterm rentals, zoning violations, property standards, noise, light infiltration. We’re dealing with all of these things and there’s two of us.”
As for the effect of the bylaw during its first winter, Cole said, “I don’t truly think anybody can speak to that because nobody’s really monitoring it.”
When it comes to ‘Mooch’ she said, “feeding is not good for him.”
