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Copco deer-feeder flaunts law By MARK FREEMAN COPCO, Calif. -- If feeding wild deer is wrong, then Thana Minion doesn't want to be right. This self-described deer lover of Copco Lake is again locking horns with California authorities over her five-year crusade as the tick-picking, nose-scratching and alfalfa-serving matriarch to a herd of blacktails near her home in Siskiyou County. Midget, Floppy, Ditsy-Doodle and the other deer need the nourishment she provides, Minion insists, because people and wildlife biologists have mucked up their habitat. "I feel very strongly about these animals," Minion says. "Until the Department of Fish and Game manages the wildlife the way they are supposed to, then the fight between me and them will continue. It will never end." State officials say she can hug all the does and pick all the ticks from the blacktails' behinds as she pleases. But the deer-feeding is unhealthy for the deer, is against state law and simply has got to stop. If not, then the diminutive Minion is bucking to become the first person prosecuted under California's don't-feed-the-deer law. "I'm not wild about the law, but I'm also not wild about somebody out there habitually feeding a herd of deer after she's been told, repeatedly, to stop," Siskiyou County District Attorney Pete Knoll said. "She's not leaving me many options," Knoll said. Last year, Minion spent 45 days in jail for feeding deer -- but the jail time came as punishment for violating her probation for earlier convictions for driving while suspended and resisting arrest, convictions connected to her deer-feeding. She faces a similar fate June 1, when a judge decides if an allegation that she has failed to "deer-proof" her small barn and cow pasture constitute a violation of her probation. Minion believes the probation allegations are curveballs meant to harass her without getting to the real heart of the issue -- whether deer-feeding, or California's 4-year-old law banning it, is right. The 49-year-old former telephone operator is convinced she will beat a deer-feeding rap in court, if only Knoll will ever give her the chance. "They know a jury is not going to convict me," Minion said. "They won't give me my day in court. They keep throwing these little things at me that don't address the problem." Biologists say the problem with Minion is that she may be loving these deer to death. Studies have concluded that feeding can disrupt the animals' regular migratory habits and can cause them to unnaturally congregate in large groups that makes them prime for predation or disease outbreaks. Moreover, the feed can so disrupt their digestive systems that they develop unstoppable diarrhea and die. Minion lays out about 35 pounds of alfalfa, corn or barley a day for the animals, furtively feeding them at sunrise -- but she says she won't admit that to authorities. Doing so can be a misdemeanor, but most people who are told to stop will do so, Knoll said. Despite repeated warnings and court appearances, Minion still doles out breakfast to 40 or more deer, prompting complaints to authorities who cannot ignore them, Knoll said. "She's running a feed lot out there," Knoll said. "When you're flaunting it, it puts everybody in a tough position." Minion believes the deer-feeding ban targets hunters, not non-hunters like herself. "I continue to say," she says, "that I have every right to feed these animals." She also insists she has never harmed the deer she feeds, and that she'll stop feeding the deer when the animals no longer need her food. But, Minion says, they will always need her help. "I might still be out picking their ticks, " Minion says, "but not taking money out of my pocket to feed them." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA