Remember
this: No good deed goes unpunished.
This story is an example of why well-meaning people, or ego-centric people wanting to be special, should not make wild animals pets. Transport the animal to a professional wildlife rehabilitation. Do not tame it.
I
wanted to cook some chili. I went to the store but forgot it was
closed on Sunday. On the way home, I saw this small buck, with
crooked, velvet antlers on the side of the road. It was about 36
inches tall at the head, with two 6 inch pronged horns. The weight
was around 45#. We call this a 45# suki.
I
was worried the little buck would run out in front of my truck, so I
was creeping along. One time before, a ten-point buck charged my car
and jumped into the passenger window, so I try to avoid a repeat of
this misadventure. I couldn’t see the deer behind me, but saw an
on-coming black SUV, then pulled off onto this dirt road to lead the
buck off the highway. It was chasing the truck like a dog. This is
not normal deer behavior.
Here
were two situations: I could hit the deer with my truck or watch as
someone else hit the deer. Either vehicle could have suffered damage,
if not harm to the drivers and the deer.
The
little buck followed the truck off and up the dirt road. I got out
making sure it was gone, but it wasn’t. I tried to run the little
buck into the woods, but it wouldn’t go. Finally, it walked up to
me and started licking my hand. This is not wild deer behavior.
There
were marks on the little buck’s coat that looked familiar. I would
later realize someone could have shaved it and the marks were from chipper
blades, probably a No. 30 or No. 40 surgical blade. The deer was just
getting hair growth back. Because of this, it was a possibility the
animal was shaved to be kept inside of a house because of shedding
issues. I ruled out the thought it might be poor diet and hair loss.
The squares of missing hair throughout the body were too surgically
perfect. It is the end of August, so it should be going toward a
winter coat.
There
was a man that lived down the road. I returned some of his beagle
dogs that ended up behind my house. The little buck followed his car
home, tried to get up on his porch, and enter his house. This upset
the man greatly, who was a deer hunter, but he didn’t want anything
to happen to the little buck. It wasn’t his. It wasn’t mine. I
asked him did he want me to call the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. He agreed, but that was a
mistake.
The
field agent reported the little buck would most likely be euthanized.
He was going to check with the wildlife biologist to determine the
protocol for handling the situation. I wasn't surprised or maddened by this news. It was expected. Hunting season is almost upon us
here in this state. I told the field agent the man felt responsible
for the deer because it was in his yard. He didn’t want anyone to
report him for owning a wild animal. I don’t blame him. I told the
man not to feed it, maybe it would wander off in the night. I left.
To
me, without proof other than the clipping of the hair and the easy
approach, clinging to humans, and no outward presentation of disease,
the deer was tame.
The
problem with this little buck was, unless it went back into a pen,
the animal was doomed. Someone had doomed this animal. It could die
by bullet or arrow on a corn pile, be hit by a car, catch a disease
from wild stock, pulled down by dogs, or die by misadventure due to
not knowing how to be a wild deer, unless he goes into a wild group
to follow by example.
The
DNR officer reported there was no way to transport the animal. I told
him, even if he did there was no guarantee the animal wouldn’t
migrate back out to residential areas. If someone would have come, I
had a way to transport it to the wildlife managed area with the
officer’s presence.
The
other problem the people who take wildlife and tame them cause is:
introducing strangers to situations they otherwise would avoid, to be
pulled into legalities, not of their making. This could be happening
upon a problem but when the law comes, somehow you are considered the
guilty party.
I
did some investigating. I can not prove any one individual but it was
not a surprise to find people doing taming practices with deer.
I found a video of a local woman feeding penned deer, with her mouth, on social media. The page was public and I was sure the Department of Natural Resources knew about these people. I assumed their papers were in order due to public content. Could the little buck have escaped or come from there? I don’t know. There is also the possibility it was someone else not found on social media. This is the boonies after all.
I
wondered why the little buck tried to stick his muzzle in my face
when I squatted down. This is not normal wild deer behavior. This
deer had gotten use to a person doing a certain repetitive act for it
to learn such a thing.
This
poses another problem: A tame, penned deer being released or escaping
into a wild population. What if, two weeks from the time I visualized
this buck, it wandered off into a wild population and broke with a
disease? It was possibly pen born or found then raised in a pen or
house, with low immunity to the outside world and its germs.
This
is an issue you find in farmed deer when they escape but are
re-penned. The animal would have to be quarantined for a certain
amount of time because of the potential of passing disease, if the
animal came into contact with a carrier in wild stock.
This
situation brings up the problem of the animal causing damage to a
motorist because it doesn’t know not to chase cars like a dog. The
person who hand-fed and raised the animal from a baby, is
out-of-sight, out-of-mind and will not be held financially or morally
responsible for a deer that either escape their care or they turned
loose. The motorist will be eating the damage bill, which is not
fair.
The
homeowner and I were frustrated, not because we couldn’t hunt the
animal, but because someone had taken something innate from the
animal, and left it in the condition of no more than a child, not
knowing any better. It was the makings of a sitting duck, bearing a
gigantic target over its head, in rain cloud fashion.
I
hope if it were someone taming deer like that, they stop or do not do
it again. It is harmful to the animal’s well-being and existence.
Blame it on my inner Greek. I could only feel pity for its plight.
In
closing, it is the ideas, strangers bear the burden of conscience to
protect something that doesn’t know it is doomed, because of
learned behavior from a human being, who is released of the little buck’s
fate. A little buck that could have grown in the wild, given a chance
to thrive, passed on his genes, and run free many years, instead of
its life cut short.
Written
by: Angelia Y Larrimore
