Un-Arm The Department of Fish & Game..
While were at it The Park Rangers Too!
The real sad thing about this move by Officer Little was there is
a wildlife protected area about 10 minutes by car, off Hogsback
Rd. Why wasn't animal control contacted to move the deer there
and release it, at least it could have been given a chance to live
and the women that had the deer is a pet would not have to live
with this guilt and pain inflected on her by this out of control agent
hired and paid to protect our countries wildlife?
DEPARTMENT OF WILD DEATH
Why haven't these agents or the agent that committed
this deed, been taught you always error on the side of life.
A house cleaner would have more feeling for wildlife._Global Earl
Comment taken as written from Redding.com Record Searchlight Live Link Below
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/dec/29/los-molinos-woman-mourns-dfg-shooting-of-pet/
Feasting in Thora Adcock's Los Molinos garden during the day and staying in her house each night over the past year and a half, Rodney the blacktailed buck was more than a pet.
"Rodney was my baby," said Adcock, 57. "Rodney was a good guy."
But because Rodney was a wild animal, state Department of Fish and Game wardens took him away from Adcock on Dec. 21 and shot him later that day.
Wardens considered releasing Rodney onto a refuge, said DeWayne Little, a DFG warden, but opted to kill him because he had been habituated to humans during his time with Adcock and showed aggression to people. That exposure created an unpredictable animal somewhere between wild and tame, Little said.
"It was even butting the officers and the people who were trying to release it," Little said.
(NOTE; WHAT DID HE EXPECT THE ANIMAL TO DO?..ACTUALLY SEEMS RODNEY COULD SENSE
THE DANGER) and he was right. DEPARTMENT OF WILD DEATH
That behavior led officers to the conclusion that Rodney needed to be killed, he said.
Each year, Little said he sees dozens of fawns, foxes, bobcats and other animals picked up by people in the north state who try to keep them in captivity. He said the agency tries to match the animals with rehabilitation experts who limit the amount of human contact with them so they can be released to the wild.
About twice a year in Shasta County, wardens find a wild animal like Rodney that has become imprinted on people as a food source, he said. Those animals are killed.
While the DFG does give permits to people who house deer and other wild animals as part of rehabilitation efforts, the agency doesn't support people keeping them as pets, said Capt. Sherry Howell at the DFG's Redding office.
"It is not in the best interest of the animal even though they think it is," she said.
Still tearful a week after Rodney's demise, Adcock said Rodney hadn't been around many other people and he was extremely nervous when the DFG officials picked him up four days before Christmas. She said Rodney wasn't aggressive - he was sweet.
"When he was a baby he used to sleep in bed with me," Adcock said.
A former neighbor, Katie McFadyen, 16, found the deer as a fawn on June 3, 2008, during a horseback ride off Pine Creek Road near Red Bluff.
McFadyen said she and her cousin spotted the young deer stumbling around in a field. They rode on and when they passed by again two hours later, the fawn still seemed to be struggling, so they scooped him up and took him home with them.
The girls had been singing a tune by country star Rodney Carrington when they found the deer so they named him Rodney, choosing the name over their first thought, "Bambi," McFadyen said.
Adcock occasionally took care of Rodney when McFadyen was gone, so McFadyen gave him to her when she moved away later that year.
Adcock already had a menagerie of goats, chickens, ducks and dogs on her 5-acre plot off of Highway 99. She said Rodney quickly became her favorite animal because of his intelligence and loving nature.
In her garden, surrounded by a 10-foot fence, Rodney munched on peaches, plums and pears, as well as tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus.
"I cut it all up for him," Adcock said.
Each evening, she'd lead him by a bandana around his neck to her house, where he'd sleep on a pile of blankets.
Rodney was already sprouting his second set of antlers, Adcock said. She filed down the antlers and his hooves so he wouldn't accidentally hurt her, she said.
In November, Adcock said, one of her neighbors called DFG to report that she was raising the deer as a pet.
On disability because of bouts with cancer and nerve problems, Adcock said Rodney had been a large part of her life.
"We fell in love with each other," she said.
Reporter Dylan Darling can be reached at 225-8266 or
ddarling@reddinhttp://www.redding.com/news/2009/dec/29/los-molinos-woman-mourns-dfg-shooting-of-pet/
Comments
Share your thoughts..
My thoughts are this. There is little difference between these paid poachers and the poachers that took a semi-wild Elk in the Millville area of Shasta County. I no longer respect Department of Fish And Game.
Department of Fish and Game, Paid Poachers -Los Molinos woman mourns DFG shooting of pet deer * By Dylan Darling * Posted December 29, 2009 at midnight