About two dozen Clintonville residents sat attentively in a meeting room at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Whetstone Branch Tuesday as Columbus City Councilwoman Nancy Day-Achauer and her legislative aid, Jacob Dilley, fielded questions about the city’s deer population. <\/p>\n
One woman in the audience leaned forward. <\/p>\n
“We truly have a problem when 10 deer cross High Street all at once in the \u2014 I’m going to say “ravine area” \u2014 between Clintonville and Worthington, right there, near St. Michael’s,” the woman said. “Ten at once on a Sunday morning. They were not going to church.”<\/p>\n
The man behind her chimed in: “And there were not deer there decades ago. I went to St. Michael’s.” <\/p>\n
Others vehemently agreed. <\/p>\n
It was the second meeting in Clintonville to discuss the neighborhood’s growing deer population. The first, in March, had about 125 attendees. <\/p>\n
“Clintonville is where the deer problem is. We have deer everywhere in the city, but it’s concentrated in this area,” Day-Achauer told WOSU. <\/p>\n
About two-thirds of responses in a city survey released earlier this year<\/a> came from Clintonville, where residents reported property damage and deer-involved vehicle crashes. <\/p>\n Tuesday, Day-Achauer and Dilley outlined a no-feed ordinance that Columbus City Council is expected to vote on next week. <\/p>\n If approved, the law would prohibit anyone in the city from purposely feeding deer with salt licks, nuts, hay or plants on private or public property. It’s does not criminalize accidentally feeding deer, as the animals like to munch on decorative plants like hostas, roses or fruit trees. <\/p>\n Law enforcement and state agencies would be exempted from the feeding ban, as would farms, zoos, authorized animal sanctuaries and educational institutes. <\/p>\n “I’m tired of them eating my trees, my plants, hoofing my yard into my garden, scaring my dog.”<\/p>\n – Bob Thomas, Clintonville resident<\/p>\n