As if our jails aren't full enough already...bah!
No one should be punished for a compassionate act. I don't know what point officaldom is making here, but Isn't a good cop more valuable to society than yet another Zek?
So what If he rescued a fawn whose mother had died? How often do we hear of public resources used to save baby ducks or stray kittens stuck down drainpipes? How is rescuing a motherless fawn different? Respect for Life people!
After all even if the fawn grows up and becomes a problem, it can still be somebody's tasty venison stew! Let any punishment neccesary fit the crime proportionally to any harm done. What harm was done? Give the cop a demerit then if one must, but jail will cost Ohio tens of thousands of dollars better spent on other things. Or does Ohio really need more prisoners?

I know most people dont have the time and skill required, or live where it would be possible to raise the fawn, but I would bring it home, put it on goats milk of lamb milk replacer for 3 months, untill it goes off on its own.If its a buck I just feed it and do not give it any extra attention, so he wont be a problem when he matures. Luckily our DNR says go ahead, just dont confine it after weaned off the bottle, because they dont want to deal with it. I dont know about all of you let nature take its course guys, but at least I could sleep at night.We kill alot of deer every season but I cant walk away from an actual "orphaned" fawn.I wonder if the Ohio dnr puts this much time and effort in all its poaching tips and investigations or are they just trying to drive home a point, with these people, who have done nothing wrong. Screw em

the law says you can't keep a wild animal and it is for good reason. i doubt they would get jail time but they do need to follow the law. if this officer tries to get around the rule of law, then who is he to enforce it? the DNR will do what is best for this fawn and don't just go around trying to kill them.

While the story above is accurate, it fails to leave out the reason why the ODNR is pursuing the case. It is illegal to keep a penned deer for fear of Chronic Wasting Disease spreading to the herd. Make a little more sense now? While it's all good intentions, and I'm sure many would do the same, you have to let it go to prevent CWD. Ohio has some of the best deer hunting in the nation. For it to be ruined by CWD would cause many more people to be harmed than just the couple who don't want the deer to be euthanized. The ODNR is just doing its job for the hunters of Ohio.

How is a wild fawn that is born in an area without cwd going to spread it? I totally agree nobody should bring home and confine wild animals, thats just common sense and the law.Probably over %90 of the "orphaned" fawns people find, are right where their mother left them, and will be back, if they just leave them alone.But, in the odd case one is orphaned, if the dnrs only action is to kill it, you should be able to get it thru untill it can go off on its own, as long as you are not confineing it.

Learn a lesson from all this, if you have the compassion to take home an orphaned baby deer, don't tell everybody about the "cute baby deer" in your backyard. It will lead the law to be forced to make an example of you. If it had not recieve the attention that it had the DNR would probably not care but now they ignore it because it would make them look like they pick and choose the laws they choose to follow. The DNR is in a dilemma that I can see is a tought decision from both sides.

Hum. ive saved an eagle when i was like 13 and i still remember the baby seal my dad brought home when i was a kid that had got hurt and was starving.. And im not conserned about legality about it here in norway. we havent legally abandoned compassion, be it on two or four legs or wings. But taking home wildlife just because is still wrong. the right place for wildlife is in the wild.
yall r still fubar though IMHO :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhfzaWNGDRU

ingebrigtsen, "right place for wildlife is in the wild." Is correct, but this situation that we are discussing is between temporary captivity and death, not captivity and wild. CWD is the reason for the law, but this situation does not increase the chance of spreading CWD in the least. The issue is captive deer mingling with sick captive deer, then mingling with wild deer. But you have to write laws in the way that this situation is illegal.

What a waste of resources and tax payer money. They have other more crucial and pressing things to pursue such as immigration, gangs, drugs, murders, rapes and thefts.

There are very good reasons for laws about wild animals. I wouldn't kill the doe and turn it into venison veal for the very same reason I wouldn't take it home to feed it etc.

I'm not sure what percentage of does get eaten by cats and bears around here but it's high. Spring is a time of new animals and also a time for the predators. It's good the issue of the officer is making the news in that I hope it's a teachable moment for the general public.

We all know jail time won't happen in this situation, but it'll be interesting to see how far a police officer will take this with the possibility of losing his job over it?? Keep us updated Scott.

Well i guess if he gets fired they can move to arkansas we dont have stupid laws like that here and we could use a good officer or two in our area just sounds like another way to control people if you ask me

We picked up a deer that was hit badly and slit its throat, we threw the 40lber in the Jeep Cherokee, and went to town to skin it out, we didn't want to waste the meat. Eight miles down the road yearling came to, and began kicking and gurgling and we didn't have room to pull over and do anything about. The purple heart Marine said that I didn't cut it worth a shit, and I said that I thought I did, stabbing in the throat and running my knife across the throat. The deer stopped kicking and then started again for aprox.- way too f'n long.It bounced around an opened undersized ice chest, then stopped before we got home. We opened the trunk and blood was slung all over, its head barely attached, the next day we took it to the butcher to be made into summer sausage and I ended up being the one that carried it in to the butcher-I felt like an ass carrying that 6 month old deer in to the butcher's,now around 18lbs ,but explained that it was a mercy roadkill. Which made it bearable, just glad the one legged devil dog picked up all 2 sticks of summer sausages and got charged full price for the deer and the sausages. I went home and sharpened, and resharpened all my knives.

well letting nature take it course is fine but the mother got killed by a vehicle i dont think mother nature has cars running through it. The Cop did the right thing, the mother was killed by accident by him and he felt like he needed to nurse the fawn because he took the mothers life! Is that really bad? I can see someone taking a newborn because they think it would be neat to have well they should be punished. This fawn clearly didnt have a chance because the mother died of not A NATURAL CAUSE so why does the fawn have to suffer because of us??

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013... Here is the link if it will work.

I used to deal with this on a weekly basis. I advised that in cases like this to leave the fawn alone and let nature take its course. Humans don't make good mothers and DNR's don't have the money to waste( the hunters pay the money) to try to raise deer like this. I have seen it tried and it doesn't work. If I had been there the doe would had been donated if it hadn't been not torn up too bad, and the fawn would have probably been dispatched by me. When people called me and had hit a deer I gave them permission to kill the deer if they had a gun with them. All the tree huggers jump on me, but this was our practice within our department. I was the DNR. Little deer grow up and hurt people and even kill people. I smell a pi##ing match between departments in this case.

he definatly should have left it