No Longer Allowed to Feed Wildlife around Spokane For Good Reason

You may have been to feeding stations where you can feed deer or moose or elk and see them a little more up-close than usual. Well, there's a disease going around with said wildlife so the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are hoping to stop it from happening to our wildlife in our area.

According to The Spokesman-Review, people are no longer allowed to feed wildlife in parts of Spokane county.

What is CWD?

More and more reports of elk, deer, moose, and reindeer getting what's called chronic wasting disease. When one of these animals get it, it's fatal to them. CDC says these animals can get it from saliva, urine, and some other factors.

Once they have it, the disease moves to their spine and brain killing them.

A deer was found dead from CWD in North Spokane so the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife are limited feeding areas in hopes not to spread this disease any further.

People were already discouraged to feed the wildlife (and never feed the bears) but now they're prohibiting feeding deer and elk around Spokane, specifically game management units 124, 127 and 130 which covers Spokane from Sprague to near the Idaho boarder.

There is some talk about making it a statewide ban on feeding wildlife. Many states already have this in place.

You can read more about this on The Spokesman-Review.