Summary
A mule deer in McBride, British Columbia, was spotted wearing a zipped high-visibility jacket, baffling residents and conservationists.
Locals are unsure how or why the deer was dressed, with some speculating safety motives while others worry about potential harm.
Conservation officers are trying to locate the deer but caution that sedating it poses risks, including fatal stress.
They hope the jacket falls off naturally and warn against dressing wildlife, which is illegal under provincial law.
We had a neighbor that had a pet moose names Baby. They spray painted her sides with big fluorescent X’s to let hunters know to not shoot her. That lasted 2 seasons until she disappeared. In hindsight, maybe big X’s weren’t the best idea.
Which is probably for the best, because if she thought you had marshmallows, she was getting big enough to stomp you to death for them. She frickin’ loved marshmallows and was becoming a hazard during campfire nights.
Feeding wildlife, even one treated as a “pet”, is a death sentence for them just as surely as if you had fired the gun yourself. Your neighbor killed that moose.
Other prime examples include: feeding alligators (now you’ve created a danger to others as well, so you’ve not just killed the animal, which will need to be destroyed by officials, you’ve potentially maimed or killed a person); feeding ducks and geese (I once has a neighbor that would feed ducks in the parking island adjacent to the main entry to our apartment complex, no surprise to me that we saw many near misses and a few dead ducks in our driveway); bears (this one should be obvious, same scenario as the gators except bears are faster, climb trees, and are probably smarter than the average person they are going to encounter when they leave the woods looking for human food).
Undomesticated animals (wildlife/wild animals) are not pets. They’re never going to be pets. They’ve just learned to manipulate some humans for food or shelter. Maybe you’ll get along for a little while with them, but that relationship has poisoned the fear keeping them safe for and from other humans.