Syracuse.com - Peterboro woman fined $27.50 for 'possession of a wild animal (deer) as a pet'

[HuntingNY-News]

"It was just laying there dying," she said in an interview late last month. "I'm a big-time animal lover and just couldn't walk by.

A Madison County woman who believed she was rescuing an abandoned fawn left by its mother ended up with a surprise: a ticket from a state wildlife officer and a $27.50 fine.

Marilyn Page, 23, of Peterboro, said she, her husband, Neil, and two young daughters, Alivia, 5, and Elizza, 2, were hiking in the woods in Eaton in June when they came across on the ground a young fawn that still had its umbilical cord attached.

"It was just laying there dying," she said in an interview late last month. "I'm a big-time animal lover and just couldn't walk by.

The family waited for about 15 minutes. The fawn's mother was nowhere in sight, Page said.

"I picked her up, put my sweater around her and brought her home (to their apartment)," she said, noting she also stopped by the local Tractor Supply Co. store and picked up some formula that's used for kids (baby goats) and started feeding the deer out of a baby bottle.

They took care of the deer for three or four days while trying to find a state volunteer wildlife rehabilitation specialist to care for the deer. They got a visit June 15 by DEC environmental conservation officer Chris Childs, who issued her a ticket.

The ticket required her to appear in Smithfield Town Court to face a state fish and wildlife law charge prohibiting "possession of a wild animal (a deer) for use as a pet." The charge carries a maximum penalty of a $250 fine, a $75 surcharge and/or 15 days in jail.

While writing the ticket, Childs offered Page a "a civil compromise" of a $25 fine and $2.50 court surcharge if she would plead guilty to it. She agreed to the compromise.

The case was handled by Town Justice Harriet McNamara on July 9. She approved of the reduced fine. The citation was noted in a November summary of tickets written by state environmental conservation officers that was released by the DEC's Syracuse office.

It's not a good thing to pick up or touch a young fawn found in the wild, wildlife experts say. State Department of Environmental Conservation officials every year put out news releases, hand out brochures and even have a page on the DEC website dedicated to that message.

It's common behavior for a doe to leave its fawn or fawns when approached by a predator or humans. Fawns have little or no scent and by instinct remain perfectly still in such situations. By leaving the fawn, the mother's actions are are intended to draw attention to her and away from her young - returning afterward when the coast is clear, a DEC wildlife biologist said.

Steve Joule, the DEC's chief wildlife biologist from Region 7, said every year his office gets calls about similar incidents from well-meaning but misinformed individuals.

"They feel like they're doing a great thing, but once they take it in they condemn the animal," he said, adding when it becomes habituated to being fed and cared for by humans it won't survive in the wild.

'And when it gets bigger, the nice, cuddly fawn becomes a nuisance problem and then we get the call," he said.

Page said the day she brought the deer home her family's cat was run over and killed in front of their home. "It was very emotional for us," she said.

She said her mother called the DEC and was given a list of local volunteer wildlife rehabilitation specialists who would take the deer. The first person she called, according to Page, chastised her for "stealing the fawn and that I did wrong. She had me in tears."

Page did find a wildlife rehabilitation specialist who would take in the fawn in Pompey, but is still she irritated by Child's ticket.

"It was kind of a slap in the face," she said. "If I didn't sign it, though, he said I was going to have to pay a heavier fine."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog

[shawnhu]

She got off EASY, more like a slap on the wrist than it was in the face. She got off at almost 1/3 of the cost of just court surcharges. She clearly violated a law, ignorance or not.

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[TeeBugg]

She had the mother nurturing gene working. Do i think she shouldve been ticketed...no. But at the same time she did break a law. Im on the fence about this one.