Faline entered the Mcgaughey residence on the morning of Dec. 19, ate three cookies and then left to wander around outside. By that afternoon, she had been fatally, and purposely, shot by local authorities while her caretakers watched. Faline was a mule deer. But was she a pet, a wild animal — or something in between?
That question is at the heart of a dispute between the Mcgaughey family and wildlife officials in Kansas, where they live. To the Mcgaugheys, Faline was tame but free, and she did not deserve to die. To wildlife authorities, the deer was a socialized wild animal that could have harmed people and spread disease to other animals.
“Euthanizing wildlife is never a pleasant situation, and it’s especially difficult when there are people present who are emotionally attached,” Mark Rankin, law enforcement assistant director for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, told a state wildlife commission at a public meeting in the city of Emporia on Thursday. But, he added, the officers had acted appropriately and in the interest of public safety. “The deer was unlawfully possessed, and there is no permit available to hold a wild-caught deer as a pet in the state of Kansas.”
What is clear about Faline is that she was an unusual doe. Taryn Mcgaughey, 34, said in an interview that the deer had followed her mother, Kim Mcgaughey, to the family’s six-acre farm outside the town of Ulysses around 22 months ago, when the animal was less than a year old. The two, Taryn Mcgaughey said, had an “instant connection.” Soon the deer had been dubbed Faline, after Bambi’s companion, and she made fast friends with the dogs, horses and goats on the property. The doe came and went as she pleased, sometimes roaming several miles, said Mcgaughey, who added that her mother had previously been told by a local game warden that this relationship was fine so long as the deer was not confined.
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Source: Game wardens killed a deer — in front of the family that kept it as a pet – The Washington Post
