A family in Brownville, Maine, is at the center of a deer-feeding controversy, and according to the Portland Press Herald, it seemed to hinge on the thin line between conservation and conflict.
The McMahon family is known for feeding deer throughout Maine's harsh winter months, a practice that might sound fairly uncontroversial — but it's a bit more complicated than that.
In 2007, the McMahons started providing food for deer. They told the paper it was a "tradition dating back to the 1980s," one that began when someone siphoned grain from a freight train, attracting a slew of hungry bucks and does.
According to the Press Herald, Richard McMahon installed cameras and began livestreaming the family's deer-feeding setup in 2016.
Their YouTube channel, Brownville's Food Pantry For Deer (@BrownvillesFoodPantryForDeer), was established on Dec. 14, 2017, and a 21-second clip of a fox chasing the deer three weeks ago racked up over 40,000 views.
Richard McMahon told the paper that their YouTube channel generated $101,266 in 2025 and that they'd earned $57,121 in the previous 90 days, creating a strong incentive to continue.
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As the outlet noted, Maine residents are permitted to feed deer from Dec. 16 to April 30, but the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife "does not condone" the practice.
The MDIFW published a resource on feeding deer in winter, opening with an adage: "If you care, let them fend for themselves." It acknowledged "sincere concern" for wild deer but warned that "many people will do more harm than good and may be killing deer with kindness."
Maine's wildlife officials cited concerns about disruptions to migration patterns, deer becoming dependent on humans for food, and general increased risks to deer that congregate.
Predation is one danger, but officials warned that fatal chronic wasting disease could spread. Wildlife biologist Bob Humphrey, a registered Maine guide, explained how human interference broadly endangered the state's wild deer.
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$200 or more 💰 "Obviously, when you concentrate animals, it's an unnatural situation, so they're more stressed. That burns up more energy, potentially puts them in a worse situation for winter survival," he said, per the Press Herald.
"Worse, though, is if you concentrate them in and around the trappings of man, near roads, near pets."
Ultimately, McMahon acknowledged that the family's deer pantry had made local deer populations reliant on humans for sustenance and that he wasn't sure what to do about it.
"How would you stop it? These deer are all going to show up; they were all born and they've spent their whole life here every winter. I don't see how to shut it off," he said.
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