If you're throwing your pumpkins out behind the barn as an easy meal for squirrels and whatever else lurks back there, then you're breaking the law in CNY.

Well, we never thought of it like this, but putting your pumpkin out in the yard could be considered feeding deer, which is illegal in CNY. NYS Codes, Rules, and Regulations Part 189 prohibits the feeding of wild deer except for specific circumstances (e.g., agriculture, wildlife food plots, raising livestock, DEC permitted research or management activities).

A. Boris/TSM
A. Boris/TSM
loading...

The DEC says feeding deer leads to communicable wildlife diseases, conflicts and interferes with wildlife habitats.

Supplemental feeding can negatively affect deer behavior, leading to increased social conflict among deer, habituation of deer to human presence, and alteration of migratory movements to critical wintering areas. Importantly, supplemental feeding can increase deer populations above ecologically sustainable levels, resulting in significant harm to local biodiversity and forest health. [DEC]

Have your jack o' lanterns ever been eaten by animals while on your porch? Ours are year after year. Is that breaking the law too?

[H/T WPDH]

More From 96.1 The Eagle