Kent City Council has made it illegal to feed deer and a long list of other wild animals on public or private property, responding to residents who say the local herd has grown bold enough to follow them to their front doors. The ordinance, passed Oct. 21, comes with a penalty that could cost violators up to $150.
According to The Portager, council unanimously adopted the measure codifying what's being called the Feeding Wild Animals and Fowl ordinance, a move confirmed by meeting documentation from the Oct. 21 session. The law specifically names deer, geese, ducks, raccoons, skunks, chipmunks, squirrels, other rodents, feral cats and other wild animals or wildlife as covered species, while carving out exceptions for domesticated pets, sanitary bird feeders that don't create a nuisance, and people tending flower or food gardens, landscape plantings, or seasonal decorations like gourds and pumpkins.
The penalty itself has been described two different ways in local coverage. The Portager's report characterizes it as a minor misdemeanor charge carrying a fine of up to $150, while Fox 8 describes the violation simply as a misdemeanor punishable by the same $150 fine. Either way, residents caught deliberately feeding the animals named in the ordinance face that financial penalty.
Residents Describe Fearless, Damaging Deer
Kent residents have reported deer tearing up their gardens and behaving with a boldness that unsettles neighbors used to seeing wildlife keep its distance. Kathy Adamle said a 300-pound deer followed her all the way to her front door while she was taking out the garbage, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Emily Parker said the animals have devastated her garden, forcing her to cage any plants she actually wants to bloom, while Carl Parker reported a herd of more than 10 deer regularly bedding down in his and his neighbor's backyards.
Those accounts echo what city officials described during presentations that set the stage for the new rule. Kent Service Director Melanie Baker and Geoffrey Westerfield, a representative of the Ohio Division of Wildlife's district office in Akron, briefed city officials on Oct. 7, laying out just how acclimated local deer have become to suburban life.
Deer Have Adapted to Backyard Living, Officials Say
Baker said deer have learned to adapt to backyard living and now have little to no fear of humans, a trend that often starts with residents feeding them directly or indirectly, per the same presentation cited by the Portager. She also said deer have adapted their diets beyond plant life and noted that coyotes and other natural predators can more easily eat from pet food dishes left outside than chase down deer, according to the Beacon Journal.
Westerfield framed public education about the downsides of wildlife feeding, paired with an enforceable ordinance, as the nonlethal first step in deer management. He said deer populations generally increase roughly 30% each year without human intervention, a figure also reflected in Fox 8's reporting that state wildlife officers put the unchecked growth rate at up to 30% annually.
Culling Options on the Table, But Not Yet Adopted
Westerfield told officials that education alone won't be enough — population control ultimately requires culling in addition to outreach efforts. He outlined three lethal-control options cities can pursue: urban archery hunting, targeted deer removal, and surgical sterilization of female deer, and offered to work with Kent leaders to implement them safely, the Portager reported. Targeted removal runs $400 to $600 per deer, according to Westerfield, while sterilization — which involves darting female deer and surgically removing their ovaries to prevent further fawns — costs $1,500 to $2,500 per deer and must be coupled with lethal control to be effective, he said. Sterilized deer may live 14 to 16 years, per Westerfield, and he said properly combining sterilization with lethal control can bring the annual population growth rate down to around 13%.
Westerfield estimated that deer population management can take up to five years to reach a tolerable level with fewer vehicle accidents and resident complaints. Nothing in the record indicates Kent has adopted any of those lethal-control or sterilization measures — the city's action so far is limited to the feeding ban.
How Other Ohio Cities Have Handled Their Herds
Other Ohio communities have gone further. Medina's 2025 deer management program used controlled-access hunting and archery permits to harvest 114 deer, according to the City of Medina. This year, Medina's bowhunting program had tallied 37 deer by Oct. 26, ahead of the 22 harvested at the same point in 2025, cleveland.com reported. Medina council separately approved a sharpshooting program to run from January through March, aiming to remove up to 200 additional deer depending on how the archery season finishes, with city officials acknowledging that reducing the deer population to a manageable level is expected to take several years.
Beachwood has pursued a different approach, handling 24 deer during a five-night capture period in January, sterilizing 21 females through bilateral ovariectomy surgery, according to a City of Beachwood report. That report recommends continued annual sterilization efforts to maintain a high percentage of sterilized deer and to target deer wandering in from neighboring communities, warning that without further treatment, the population will keep growing as new deer move in from outside the city.
State rules already limit wildlife feeding on public land. Ohio's administrative code prohibits intentionally feeding wild or domestic waterfowl, wild animals or other wild birds without written approval from an area manager, subject to exceptions like posted areas or park-sponsored nature programs, according to the Ohio Administrative Code. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has separately warned that artificial feeding stations can harm individual animals and wildlife populations, noting that baiting and feeding can cause overcrowding around feeder sites.
