Elusive killer deer caught
Animal moved to facility in Punta Gorda
Monique Green
December 10, 2005
State wildlife investigators captured a six-point red deer nearly three weeks after it gored a miniature horse named Rowdy in North Fort Myers.
The 270-pound animal was found about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, a few yards away from the house on Quail Hollow Road where neighbors said the residents kept it as a pet, said Leonard Barshinger, an investigator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
The exotic buck, which originated in Europe and is not indigenous to the area, was tranquilized and moved to a permitted location in Punta Gorda, Barshinger said. The owner of the facility where the deer was taken asked that it not be identified, but FWC spokesman Gary Morse said the deer was in a safe environment among other deer.
But the horse's owner, Catherine Searle, thinks the deer still is roaming the community.
"I don't believe that it's captured. (Barshinger) said he would personally tell me," she said. "I won't believe it."
Searle said she saw the deer in the neighborhood as recently as Thursday afternoon.
Barshinger insists the culprit has been caught. "It is a red deer. It is the same one that was there on Quail Hollow Road," he said.
Searle said the nightmare of watching the animal that slaughtered Rowdy, her pet horse, strut past her yard for the past few weeks could have been avoided.
The FWC officials said there was nothing more they could have done.
"Capturing animals is not a science," Morse said. "Animal movement and behavior can be unpredictable at times. We're in a large area trying to intercept and figure out where it's going to be. It can be an educated guess at best."
The tangled tale began early Saturday, Nov. 19, when the deer jumped Searle's fence and ultimately killed the 4-year-old horse. The deer was in rut, Barshinger said, and the animal could have been trying to mate with the horse.
Searle has said her 3-foot-tall miniature horse was smaller than the deer she estimated to be about the size of a standard horse.
As odd as the events may sound, Morse said, the FWC gets at least a dozen calls a day for similar situations. But these animal encounters are avoidable, he said.
"Feeding animal wildlife is the No. 1 cause of nuisance behavior in animals," he said. "We made two alligator feeding cases late this summer. Those are rare cases to make. You actually have to see the people doing it."
Morse thinks the trouble began when Troy and Tracy Cummings, the couple Searle said owns the buck, began feeding it. The Cummings denied ownership of the animal in an interview with The News-Press in November. They could not be reached for comment Friday.
The FWC cited the couple in November for not having the proper caging and permits to house the exotic animal. Morse said the commission had information that the Cummings fed the animal.
While people may have good intentions for feeding wild animals, Morse said the outcome is often negative. In Rowdy's case, it was fatal.
"The unfortunate thing is that animals don't understand kindness," he said. "The only thing they understand is eat, sleep and reproduce. As a result, it ends up becoming a nuisance."
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051210/NEWS01/512100484/1075
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Elusive killer deer caught 10-12-2005
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- Written by: AYR ADMIN
- Category: Strange/Rare Fauna Reports