Likely a combination of both, those familiar with the situation say.

The matter is expected to come before the Iron Mountain City Council at its next meeting Monday, after some area residents in January called on the city council to move toward eliminating the pen, given the relatively barren conditions in the enclosure.

Quinnesec residents Jim and Amie Tefft suggested the space would be better used for community gardens, trails, birdwatching, pickleball courts, an ice rink or even an outdoor theater.

“The enclosure, now reduced to just about two football fields in size, seems to fail in providing the necessary environment for the herd’s physical and emotional well-being,” they said in a statement that was also posted on social media.

DEER ENJOYING A sunny day on the hillside in the deer enclosure in Iron Mountain’s City Park. The herd now numbers 24, including seven fawns born last summer. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

While Diane Luczak of Iron Mountain rejected the Teffts’ idea of allowing the deer to return to the wild, she suggested at the meeting “rehoming” them, or possibly castrating the bucks to let the herd dwindle away. It now has inbreeding that’s not healthy, she said.

Yet others contend the pen draws people to the park, adding the deer appear in decent condition and not stressed.

“I love to see them,” said one woman who was feeding several members of the herd Friday. “I love coming here.”

An official with the Iron Mountain Department of Public Works, which tends the park and herd, said they have taken no stance in the discussion. He preferred his name not be used to avoid “getting in the middle” of the debate, given the passion some people on both sides have shown about the pen.

“I just want what’s best for the animals all around,” he said.

The herd now numbers 24, four more than the target set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regularly inspects the pen — the deer are considered livestock, not wildlife.

While the fawns born last summer have yet to be sexed, the pen generally has more bucks than does, none of which have been castrated, or gelded. The herd in 2024 produced seven fawns, down from 10 the previous year.

In spring or fall, the herd will be evaluated for culling to get down to 20, the official said. Overly aggressive bucks are the most likely to be taken out — fights some years have resulted in injuries, even deaths, he said. The department turns the meat over to food pantries, similar to hunters being able to donate venison.

Any deer that dies in the pen, either by natural causes or being culled, is tested for chronic wasting disease and other conditions before being disposed of or sent for processing, the official said.

The ones that remain year after year live in a pen roughly 850 feet in length by an average of 300 feet in width, much of it on a hillside, surrounded by a double, chain-length fence.

The herd costs about $1,300 a month to feed, which a DPW employee does once a day. They’ve recently switched to hay bales, to discourage the dozens of ducks and geese drawn in by the corn and oats they’d previously used. It got so bad that two years ago they had to drain the enclosure’s pond and remove the stones down to the liner to clean the bird droppings fouling the pool, the deer’s drinking water source.

Labor costs otherwise are minimal, city officials said. The Iron Mountain Animal Hospital provides veterinary care when needed, which varies from year to year and for now is not a major consideration, city officials said.

The pen does lack shelter, the DPW official acknowledged. The deer make it almost impossible to maintain all but a few tall trees, as they browse down new growth in all but one fenced-off area. The one wooden structure in the pen is insufficient to hold all of the deer in poor weather conditions.

Yet the City Park deer tend to be long-lived, the official observed. The last two does taken out of the herd were 17 and 19 years old, he said, well beyond the average age of 6.5 years in the wild, according to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. They have a regular food source and safety from predators or being hit by vehicles.

And while the USDA inspector did note the lack of cover or shelter, that came as a recommendation, not an order to correct, the official said.

The other strong recommendation raised during inspection? Get people to stop feeding the deer unless a dispenser can be set up with proper food, such as commercially produced deer pellets.

“People throw all sorts of things into the enclosure,” much of it materials the deer may have trouble digesting and could potentially harm the animals, he said.

The pen once had a sign prohibiting feeding that got taken down at some point and needs to be replaced, both he and City Manager Jordan Stanchina said.

Nancy — she asked that her last name not be used — said while poking items through the fencing Friday she would abide by the feeding restriction if the sign goes back up.

But for now, she shows up almost daily with a bag that might have apples, potatoes, carrots or other root vegetables or peels, which a few of the deer eagerly accept from her hands. Friday, she also offered chunks of what she described as a high-quality wheat bread but said she normally stays away from more processed foods.

She doesn’t think it does any harm, she said.

She called out to “Rusty,” a fawn in the enclosure she believes was the offspring of an old doe that disappeared last year after she and others noticed a wound on its side, adding perhaps the doe was culled. Eventually a fawn with a reddish tint came trotting to the fence. “Rusty knows me,” she said. “He’s my little ray of sunshine.”

For Nancy, the deer are a reason to walk in the park every day. She says she’s not alone in that — another couple regularly comes in the afternoon, primarily for Lydia, a chunky doe that has a yellow ear tag with the name. A woman with a special needs child frequently visits as well. It’s a popular route for walkers and joggers, she said.

In summer, Nancy will give children tidbits to pass through the fence.

“Every day I come here,” she said, “and I get a little peace.”

Captive deer have been part of City Park since at least the mid-1950s, said Bill Cummings of the Menominee Range Historical Foundation. A lifelong resident who was born in 1947, he remembers them from his early childhood.

The site once had other animals as well — a black bear named Bruno that lived in a pit enclosure, a bison, even peacocks. But no records have been found so far on when the animals first got installed at City Park, Cummings said.

The public works official knows the deer have been there more than 50 years. Nancy said she’s been coming to the park for the deer at least 30 years.

“I don’t think they’re being abused,” she said. She suggests the city could create more shelter by extending the fencing into trees at one end.

She and others will have a chance at 6 p.m. Monday in City Hall to tell the Iron Mountain City Council what they want done with the deer pen.

“It would break my heart to see this gone,” she said, “and I think it would break a lot of people’s hearts.”