What started as a first-grade project to honor the gray fox ended Thursday with a bill-signing ceremony to anoint the white-tailed deer as Georgia’s official state mammal.
Gov. Nathan Deal signed the legislation at Reese Road Leadership Academy in Columbus to congratulate the students on their campaign.
The kids chose the fox after learning that Georgia was one of three states with no official mammal, but sided with the ubiquitous deer after Department of Natural Resources rangers lobbied them to change it.
The reason for the change? The department said that deer hunting has an economic impact that tops $890 million in Georgia, while gray foxes are more likely to be associated with nuisance complaints.
The measure, House Bill 70, passed both chambers with only three "no" votes. One was state Rep. Tom McCall, R-Elberton, who called the deer an "aggravating nuisiance" and worried that it could make it harder for irate farmers to protect their property and crops from the animal.
State Rep. Carolyn Hugley, the Columbus Democrat who sponsored the bill, assured him it would not. Nor, she added, would it prevent anyone from eating the animal.
The white-tailed deer now joins a distinguished group that includes the gopher tortoise, the state's official reptile; staurolite, the state mineral; and the honeybee, the state insect.
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