City Council Considers Banning Feeding Deer

The Mentor City Council and its administration continued during a work session Tuesday afternoon at .

During the session, Mentor Law Director Richard Hennig talked about a proposed city ordinance that would ban feeding deer.

Hennig said the biggest concern would be who would enforce the ordinance if it were passed. He suggested that the building department might be able to monitor it as they would any other nuisance report.

"This way we can look at the individual situation before we go to court," Hennig said. "It's not the typical situation where someone commits a crime and you run to court to file something."

Hennig added that enforcing a deer-feeding ordinance might not be the best use of a police officer's time.

At the moment, deer are not legally considered a nuisance animal in Mentor. However, feeding a nuisance animal -- which include rats, raccoons and skunks in Mentor -- is a criminal offense.

Councilwoman Janet Dowling said some city residents have told her that deer will knock down bird feeders and eat from them. Consequently, some people might be feeding the deer by accident.

"It's going to be a very difficult thing to enforce," she said of the proposed ordinance.

City Manager Kenneth Filipiak also asked City Council to consider voting on an ordinance that would allow him to begin gathering information .

Ward 4 Councilman John Krueger asked if either proposed deer-related ordinance would be on the ballot at the next City Council meeting.

"Could be," Filipiak replied.