Deer Feeder Faces Off With Government's Eco-goons in Courtroom

Corresponding from New York today, and the biggest upstate outrage here involves a 75-year-old widower, who faced criminal charges of $250 in fines and 15 days in jail for the unspeakable crime of, a drum roll please, feeding deer in his backyard!

It seems state govenment eco-goons got wind of this atrocity and declared nuclear war. Only after a huge public uproar that packed an area courtroom with 150 supporters, a New York State Assemblywoman and the news media did the Department of Environmental Conservation back off.

Just one of the many hazards of trying to live as a free American in a blue state.


(Times Herald-Record, Middletown, NY)

On Jan. 7, Klendin Kirby, who lives alone with a little dog in a home he built just after World War II, was ticketed because he spread alfalfa behind his property to help feed the deer that he worried may starve in the freezing weather.
The widower faced up to a $250 fine and 15 days in jail for the violation.
Last night, in Barryville Justice Court, the self-confessed deer feeder got off with a warning after the Department of Environmental Conservation agreed to dismiss the charge against him.
"Why didn't they just give him a warning the first time," said Don Paulus, 71, who had squeezed into one of the brown pews. "You'd think he killed someone."