Syracuse.com - DEC investigates the case of the tame Skaneateles button buck

[HuntingNY-News]

A DEC spokeswoman said the situation was investigated

Submitted photo

A Skaneateles couple unexpectedly encountered a tame button buck on their back porch late last week.

"This morning, as I was driving to my office, I received a text message from my wife with a photo of a button buck, on our porch with a florescent orange collar around its neck." said David Cutten, of Lacy Road. "The little thing was not afraid of our dogs, in fact it was licking the window of our door as they were on the other side trying to get at it."

Cutten said he called the local state Department of Environmental Conservation office and initially got an answering machine. He said later in the afternoon he was called by a DEC staffer and was told the matter was being handed over to environmental conservation officers. Nobody came that night, he said.

Saturday morning Cutten said, "As of 5:45 this morning he is still here, he met me at the door."

Responding to written questions on the situation, Lori Severino, a DEC spokesperson in the DEC's Albany office responded:

"The caller was told that the information would be forwarded to the Division of Law Enforcement in case the situation involves an Environmental Conservation Law violation (e.g. illegal possession/confinement of wildlife).

Submitted photo

Severino said DEC law enforcement staff "received the information and responded to the location.

"Interviews conducted in neighborhood where the animal was last seen revealed one resident had been observed feeding 'tame deer.' That resident was interviewed and admitted taking the deer in after he found it as a fawn, and he said he placed the collar around the animal's neck in an attempt to prevent if from being shot by hunters.

"The resident also indicated that although the deer often returns to his property, it is not being fed and is not being held in captivity or confined in any way."

Sutten said his main concern was that "the buck was tame, and that it would be hit by a vehicle as we live on Rt. 359." He was critical, though, of the DEC' s handling of the situation

"I'm a hunter, my sons are hunters and we thought we were doing the right thing by contacting the DEC regarding this situation but the response by the DEC only sends a message, that to me, tells me they really don't have the resources for something like this and therefore the animal is on its own," he said.

Severino responded:

"Region 7 wildlife biologists and technicians are typically in the field each and every day working on wildlife management programs, that, this time of year include everything from banding black ducks , tracking fisher populations , trapping/banding wild turkeys, monitoring threatened and endangered species populations, eradicating evasive plant and animal species, assessing species/habitat requirements, and attending to the region's Wildlife Management and Cooperative Hunting Areas to name a few.

She concluded: "Each member of the Regional Wildlife Unit will respond to voice messages and emails from the public as soon as they are able to do so, and the response in this particular case was no exception."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog

[growalot]

The person that left a comment is clueless....How long before that little buck out grows that collar? Who's to say he would not become distressed as it tightens around his neck and stay clear of ppl...Gets caught on a fence or God forbid he manages to keep it on long enough to go into the next years breeding cycle.....Picture two buck dead with ones rack hooked up in that collar

Unfortunately the well meaning ppl that tamed him...signed his death warrant unless they still give out permits to ppl like taxidermists to keep a penned deer....Oh yes...neighbor had such a permit and kept a buck for many years in a high fenced pen right behind his house visible from the road.

[Paula]

The person that left a comment is clueless....How long before that little buck out grows that collar? Who's to say he would not become distressed as it tightens around his neck and stay clear of ppl...Gets caught on a fence or God forbid he manages to keep it on long enough to go into the next years breeding cycle.....Picture two buck dead with ones rack hooked up in that collar

Unfortunately the well meaning ppl that tamed him...signed his death warrant unless they still give out permits to ppl like taxidermists to keep a penned deer....Oh yes...neighbor had such a permit and kept a buck for many years in a high fenced pen right behind his house visible from the road.

I agree