Westlake
Fairview Park City Council is expected to pass an ordinance Monday that will ban feeding of wild animals, including deer. The proposed law would not ban bird feeders.
Council took up the issue after a West 223rd Street resident complained to Ward 4 Councilman John Hinkel a neighbor had been leaving corn and seed out for deer. The resident also complained to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.
County board of health sanitarian Denise Romano, who handled the complaint, told council members Monday night she discovered rat burrows on the property in question.
The neighbor agreed to stop feeding the deer after Romano left a letter informing him of the complaint, she said.
Romano told council members although the county has animal nuisance regulations, its ability to enforce them is essentially nonexistent. The county board of health’s role in such cases is first and foremost one of educating residents to stop practices that attract pests, she said. But municipal ordinances that ban the feeding of wild animals often help them convince residents to stop creating a nuisance, she added.
The new law will not ban bird feeders. But Romano said bird feeders can be a nuisance and attract rodents in some cases. She recommended bird feeders be located off the ground and built so food cannot be accessed by other animals.
Joe Lynch, a county board of health project manager who also attended Monday night’s council committee meeting, said enforcement of such feeding bans is complaint driven, with prosecution used as a last resort in extreme cases. Romano said her department has encountered some cases in which people left massive quantities of food out for wild animals.
Mayor Eileen Patton and council members also expressed the view the new law should be complaint driven. Patton said the suburb’s police and building departments simply do not have the time to patrol for residents who are feeding animals.
Fairview Park’s proposed feeding ban would add the following paragraph to the section of the city code on “Animals: Nuisance conditions prohibited”:
“No person shall intentionally or recklessly provide food within the Municipality to any wild or feral animal so as to create noxious or offensive odors or unsanitary conditions, endanger the health, comfort or safety of any other person, or contribute to the damage of real or personal property of any other person.”
Violations of the proposed feeding ban would be minor misdemeanors subject to a fine of up to $150.
At a Nov. 14 committee meeting, Hinkel said he believed passing a feeding ban would be better than telling complaining residents there’s nothing the city can do about neighbors who feed wild animals.
“I don’t want to over-legislate,” the Ward 4 councilman said. He noted many neighboring suburbs have established feeding bans in recent years.
Comments made on a Fairview Park Facebook group page about the issue were mixed, with some saying the government should not tell people what to do on their property. Others said they’d support a feeding ban to prevent rats and other rodents.
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