Deer can be beautiful creatures.

Majestic.

Who doesn’t leave peeking out their back window and seeing a handful of does and maybe a buck grazing in the grass or picking at bushes or trees?

Beautiful.

But deer also can be a nuisance.

They ruin gardens. They can damage fences. They obliterate foliage.

And they can be dangerous.

Last year, more than 58,000 Michigan crashes involved deer, according to the Michigan State Police. The large animals can severely damage cars and can injure motorists.

Deer belong in the woods.

They don’t belong in the city.

Yet Alpenans and Alpena city government officials have spotted more of the animals in town, of late, according to a recent story by News staff writer Steve Schulwitz.

The animals can find plenty of food to keep them around town, but city officials suspect residents have been feeding the deer.

Feeding deer is illegal, in part because densely congregating deer can spread disease such as bovine tuberculosis or chronic wasting disease.

And it keeps the animals around to destroy property, chew up our landscaping, and risk crashes.

We join city officials in urging Alpenans not to feed deer.

Don’t do anything that encourages the animals to stick around town, where they don’t belong.