Raising Rudolph

They didn’t laugh and call her names, but it took awhile for Jim and Pam Daversa’s reindeer herd to let Bell join their reindeer games.

Bell, an orphaned reindeer calf, lived inside the Daversa’s Flinton home until she was 6 months old. They fed her with a bottle, taught her to relieve herself on paper, and in the evenings, she’d curl up with them to watch TV. Eventually, they introduced her to their other eight reindeer, who slowly accepted her.

“She still thinks we’re her parents,” Jim Daversa said. “She lets me walk up, hug and kiss her. She’s just a lovable thing. But we wanted her to fit in with the other reindeer.”

The Daversas’ operation is part of the $103 million deer farm industry in Pennsylvania, though less than 1 percent of those farms raise reindeer, said Don Wagner, unit manager of Penn State University’s Deer Research Center in University Park.

There are 972 deer farms registered in the state’s Cervid Livestock Operators license program, which the Pennsylvania Department of Agricul-ture requires of anyone who owns any type deer, which are a cervid species, said Chris Ryder, PDA press secretary.

Of those farms, 83 percent raise whitetail deer, 14 percent raise elk, 2 percent raise red deer and 1 percent raise “other” types of deer, which includes reindeer, Wagner said, citing a 2007 economic impact study of Pennsylvania’s deer farms.

No official number of reindeer farms in Pennsylvania is available, but 10 farms in the state belong to the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association, said president Kyle Wilson.

Reindeer have been domesticated in northern Europe for thousands of years, and they were introduced to Alaska in 1891, said Tom Scheib, co-founder of ROBA. Scheib, who lives in Milltown, Wis., has bred reindeer for about 25 years.

“Most reindeer are raised now for meat, but in the past they were both a meat and draft animal,” Scheib said. “For those of us in the lower 48, they are normally used as exhibition and draft animals at Christmastime.”

The public will have the chance to visit the Daversas’ herd when they open Santa’s Village, a Christmas-themed “wonderland” for families, Daversa said. Santa’s Village is slated to open in 2008.

First and foremost, though, the Daversas’ reindeer are their pets.

“I seem to relate to them,” Daversa said. “I talk to them like I talk to my dog. It’s just neat.”

In Alexandria, Evelyn and Kurt Bookhammer tend a herd of nine reindeer at J.B. Tree Farm. They purchased their first deer 13 years ago to add to the Christmas atmosphere of their farm, where they grow and sell evergreen trees.

The Bookhammers also take their reindeer to a few Christmas events in the area, and during the school year, they host educational tours of their farm for children. But like the Daversas, they also simply enjoy the their animals’ company.

“They’re so fun, so personable,” Evelyn Bookhammer said. “They’re just great animals. They’re feisty, fun.”

As fun as the deer can be, Bookham-mer said they are susceptible to parasites and other health risks.

The Bookhammers work with Town and Country Animal Hospital in Warriors Mark to keep their deer disease and parasite free.



The reindeer aren’t too exotic to the veterinary practice because they are ruminant animals like cattle, sheep and goats, said Dr. Phil Aquadro, one of the veterinarians who works with the herd. Ruminant animals’ stomachs are divided into four compartments. They regurgitate their food, chewing it as cud.

“They’re not completely unlike anything we’ve ever treated,” Aquadro said. “Time and time again, when issues come up, it goes back to the basics of (caring for) ruminants.”

Scorching summer temperatures aren’t much of an issue for the reindeer, as long as they have plenty of shade, water and a breeze, said Greg Finstad, program manager of the Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“They’re able to dissipate excess heat,” Finstad said in a telephone interview. “They have a very large tongue, and they pant like a dog.”

You probably won’t find the Daversas’ reindeer panting, even on the hottest day — they have an air conditioned barn.

“I felt bad for them,” Daversa said. “I’m the one who wanted to raise them here. They’re spoiled rotten.”

There isn’t a Vixen or a Prancer in either the Daversas’ or Bookhammers’ herds, though some of the Daversas’ deer have Christmas-inspired names, like Bell, Bow, Noel, Holly and Angel. The Bookhammers started with Dasher and Dancer but have since moved on to a spice theme, with Ginger, Rosemary and Marzipan, among other names.

But why aren’t there any named after Rudolph — the most famous reindeer of all?

“None of them have red noses,” Bookhammer said. “I don’t think kids would like to come out here and see a Rudolph with a brown nose.”

Mirror Staff Writer Ashley Gurbal is at 946-7435.