The fawn was plucked from its pregnant mother after she was killed in a car crash. It was reared at the RSPCA Wildlife Centre in Nantwich, Cheshire, then released into the wild. But the male roe deer was deemed too tame for its natural environment and was euthanased. The move has been condemned by the British Deer Society, which said it was irresponsible to bring up the deer and expect it to be able to go back into the wild. David Kenyon, from the British Deer Society, said: If the RSPCA took the decision to raise the deer, then they should have taken the long-term decision to put it into a petting zoo. It was irresponsible to bring up a deer and expect it to go back into the wild. I have heard of deer being raised and put in petting zoos, but I have not heard of one being raised and then put down. Thats a first. The deer appeared from his mothers ruptured abdomen after being struck by a car in Chapeltown Road, Turton, Bolton, Greater Manchester in June. After a month, the male roe deer was taken to a centre in Norfolk with specialist facilities to rehabilitate deer into the wild. The animal was released into the wild last week, but the RSPCA said the deer was too tame following its release and it had to be put down. The RSPCA has said that when a tame deer had been placed in a deer park before it had jumped on people. That could have been dangerous because of its large antlers and it was shot by the park owners. A spokesman for the RSPCA said: The deer which was born after his mother was killed in a car accident was released into the wild. Sadly, it was immediately evident that he was too tame to cope with his new environment and his welfare would have been at risk if he had remained there. Staff caught him again and he was put to sleep in a humane way. The ethos behind our wildlife centres is to get wild animals back to where they belong. In addition, a male roe deer as tame as this could pose a serious risk to humans, as well as to itself. As with all wildlife rescues, we took a risk that this deer would not thrive on release. We took the chance that we could rear it, knowing that we might have to euthanase it if it sadly proved unsuitable for a life in the wild. |
What a sad story. I don’t want to make any judgments without knowing the full story but I did want to just say that it is very possible to release hand reared deer into the wild. On that point (and most others in our view) the Deer Society are quite wrong. However, they do imprint easily so it is important that strict protocols are followed from day one or the damage done is hard to reverse. It also seems sad that the deer was given less than a week to adapt to life in the wild – I would be interested to learn more about the release methods used here. And finally, I would have thought it would have become apparent some time previously that the deer was going to be too tame for release. The biggest shame is that no thought seems to have been given to finding this animal a sanctuary place (NOT in a “petting zoo”) where he could perhaps have lived happily in a safe environment.
