Everything was going fine until the Federal DNR got involved. First they demanded a permit. When a rescue permit was denied, Federal agents came to the couple's home to kill the deer, and arrest the couple.
"She was a threat to society is what they said," recalled Jeff. The couple now faces up to 60 days in jail for their crimes.
http://www.wthr.com/story/
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No, the law didn't say kill it!!
ReplyDeleteThe DNR may soon be under investigation!
The land of the free, yeah right.
ReplyDeleteThat's absolutely ridiculous. I mean how does that even make since. Its a damn deer, a baby deer. Not a wild bear. Anything to cause a problem
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeletewhen the police are more concerned about the good being done by civilians and less about who they're working for you must wonder what kind of world we are leaving for our children
ReplyDeleteSo is the deer dead? If it is, that's the sickest thing I've ever heard
ReplyDeleteI just speechless
ReplyDeleteIndiana has a lot of stupid laws. Also, Indiana has a lot of people who don't know how to mind their own business and love to turn in their neighbors for stupid reasons. I don't see anything wrong with the couple caring for the fawn and they should have been left alone. I live here in Indiana and right now this story is big news around here. Also, did you know in Terre Haute, Indiana it is illegal to feed stray cats and cats are required to have licenses just like dogs. Also in Terre Haute they have a lot of crime, especially thefts, battery and even stabbing and shootings, however this spring they are going to use their law enforcement to round up stray cats all throughout the city. I'm so glad I moved out of that city two years ago.
ReplyDeleteOkay, let's all calm down. Yes these people were trying to do something nice. Yes this fawn was injured and needed help. No they didn't do the right thing. All states have laws concerning how wildlife is to be treated and handled by it's residents. Additionally, there are typically a number of local ordinances which also carry penalties for sheltering certain animals (not just wildlife) or simply being in possession of them.
ReplyDeleteI have worked for many years with a local wildlife rehabilitation center that dealt with many situations identical to what happened with the Councellers in Indiana. Many times the animal in question had to be euthanized because it could no longer be returned to the wild. The idea of wild animal rehabilitation is to minimize the amount of human contact during healing as much as possible in order to return the animal to the wild without compromising it's wild nature.
All too often people take in these animals (such as raccoons or opossum and end up with a disease or severe injury. In my city the wildlife rehabilitation center I worked with also worked very closely with the state DNR to make sure there were laws allowing for licensed, trained individuals in many of the surrounding communities and safe drop-off points for found, injured animals, where they could be left until they could be picked up by the rehabilitation center staff who had been trained to handle them. Many times these animals were too injured to have any quality of life and had to be euthanized but more often than not they could be patched up and sent back to the wild to live a full life after their recovery. Deer are especially difficult to deal with when they are fawns. They imprint to humans when they are that young. That means they can NEVER be returned to the wild once they have had too much contact with people. We had to take great care with minimizing contact with them as well as any bear that we took in. When the Indiana DNR says the young deer might pose a danger they are overreacting a bit. That deer will always seek out human contact and human food. No herd will ever accept it in now and there is a risk that it will wander into homes or stores seeking food as it has never been taught by it's own kind how to forage in the wild.
Wildlife rehabilitation centers are not typically funded by any government agency or subsidy. They are run on pure sweat, effort, and donations from people who are concerned about working with the DNR as a community. While my own local center was around until a few years ago our area of the state saw very few incidents such as this and had a very high success rate at helping the community with injured wildlife and return to the wild. Since the economic downturn the center was forced to close it's doors from lack of donations and our local animal control and DNR have had a very chaotic time dealing with problems like these.
This is why it is very important to know the local laws about wildlife. When in doubt contact the local DNR office and ask if there is a wildlife rehabilitation center in your area. Worst case scenario call your local police department and make use of their Animal Control unit. That's what our tax dollars are there for. These people are trained in handling these animals and can let you know what laws apply. And if you don't like the laws do something to change them like we did locally. Either way, if you feel strongly about this story please support your local wildlife rehabilitation center. If there isn't one and you still feel passionate maybe it's time to start one.