It will now be prohibited to feed a deer outside of hunting periods, anywhere in Quebec.
The government of François Legault will prohibit this practice through a regulation, which will come into force on Thursday. It provides for fines – the amount of which is undetermined to date – for anyone who feeds a white-tailed deer from 1er December to August 31.
The objective: to limit “several well-documented problems for the species, such as health and mortality problems linked to inappropriate food” or the “retention of deer in environments less favorable to their survival”, indicated the Ministry of Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks in a press release on Wednesday.
Several municipalities, including Longueuil and Boucherville, already prohibit the feeding of these deer. Quebec wishes to extend this type of regulation to the entire territory.
“We have a problem in an urban environment. […] In my region, in Blainville, I could talk to you about it too,” said Environment Minister Benoit Charette on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. “People, often, have wanted to do well, have developed a habit of feeding deer, but that limits them in a habitat that is far from natural. »
In Boucherville, for example, white-tailed deer have overflowed from the Parc national des Îles-de-Boucherville and are now frolicking in the residential streets of the area. Despite a municipal by-law prohibiting it, some residents take to feeding them.
In Longueuil, the proliferation of deer in Michel-Chartrand Park has forced the City to consider culling a hundred animals. Then, in a decision, the Court of Appeal requested the suspension of this operation while waiting for the Superior Court of Quebec to rule on the merits of the case.
No more inspectors
By enacting his new regulations, Benoit Charette intends to nip the problem in the bud. “It is one solution among others. Eventually, it will be necessary to attack the overpopulation itself, but to prevent this overpopulation from developing […]it is a measure that is becoming necessary,” he said on Wednesday.
The application of the regulation will not go through increased surveillance, but through “reporting”, indicated Mr. Charette. “We understand that there are not inspectors everywhere,” agreed the elected representative of the Coalition avenir Québec.
“People who think they are doing the right thing by feeding them need to be told that it is not to the benefit of the deer,” he added.
Joined by The duty, the Director General of the Society for Nature and Parks, Alain Branchaud, hailed the Minister’s gesture, which he believes will enable “a new approach to the management of white-tailed deer populations”. “Enforcing the regulations could pose some challenges, however, including how to determine which animal species is being targeted by a person offering food,” he noted.
“Tackling overpopulation”
The ban on feeding deer is only a first step, according to Benoit Charette. In time and place, cases of overpopulation will have to be stemmed by allowing hunting in certain parks of the Société des establishments de plein air du Québec (SEPAQ) where overpopulation is rampant. “There are regulatory enhancements that will take place over the next few months,” said the Minister of the Environment.
In Parc national des Îles-de-Boucherville, overpopulation causes deaths every winter, and this winter was no exception. However, SEPAQ is unable to document the extent of the phenomenon. “We do not count these mortalities,” it says in a written response.
However, it is assured that an intervention “plan” will be implemented by the end of the year “in order to protect the natural environment from the impacts of the overabundance of white-tailed deer”. According to information obtained since Monday, several cases of death were recorded in March in Longueuil and Boucherville.
With Alexander Shields