Letter to the Editor; Residents against feeding of feral animals

To the Editor:

We are so happy to hear that others are concerned about the invasion of Odessa by feral populations of animals. If you want to enjoy your household pets, don’t let them run around outside at any time. Even in broad daylight, your much-loved kitty can become lunch for a coyote. Offering food to the wild animals makes the danger of attacks on domestic pets even greater.

In our yard, we cannot grow many things because we are overrun by deer feeding at a neighbor’s “feeding station.” Isn’t this really a bit cruel? I think they may have fed several generations of deer, by now; deer that now know no other way to forage than to arrive and be fed. I have heard the neighbors enjoy watching (via an outdoor camera) all the wild animals (skunks, raccoons and deer, etc.) feeding off the grain they leave out for them every night.

We have observed as many as 15 deer in our yard in the early morning hours, munching away at our raspberries and other tender plants. We planted our raspberries five years ago and still have not had a single berry off of them. The deer “trim” them every night for us. We have heard that we cannot build a fence, now, high enough to keep the deer out in this town. Is this true?

Worse than that, the skunks have taken up residence wherever they can build a den, close to the feeding station. One of our neighbors has removed three from his property so far. Another neighbor has had her dogs sprayed by them. We work in our garden in the early morning and have encountered them crossing our property from the “feeding station” to their dens. It’s not safe to be out there. Lots of people around here could not get out of the way of an angry or frightened skunk and could be sprayed. Twice, neighbors have observed families of skunks traveling through the neighborhood, making for the “feeding station.” I knew a couple, at one time, whose two beautiful Alaskan Malamute dogs died as a result of being sprayed by a skunk. Think what an attack would do to a small child or an older adult.

Isn’t our time every day taken up by enough difficulties, already? Now, we have to be careful going out after dark for fear of running onto a neighborhood skunk or raccoon. Now we can’t raise food for our families because of large numbers of deer in the town. Now we have to buy expensive traps and/or pay someone to trap feral animals overrunning our property. Feeding wild animals is cruel to the animals and is troublesome to everyone in the vicinity.

The Donahues

Odessa