See this deer above? This is the face of a deer held captive inside of a house for at least a year, according to West Virginia Natural Resources Police.
“While they were interviewing the subject, they could hear the commotion in the back part of the house, and the man tried to explain it away as a dog,” police spokesman Sgt. Gary Amick told The Post. “He finally confessed it was a second buck.”
The man was charged with two counts of illegal possession of wildlife, with his prosecution pending, according to police. The misdemeanor can carry a penalty of $20 to $300 and the possibility of jail time.
The first deer was a six-point buck, referring to the antlers on the animal, and it appeared to have been a captive for at least a year, Amick said. Police released both deer, one of which quickly darted into the woods.
As for their physical health, “they weren’t in as good a shape as they would have been out in nature,” Amick added.
While deer can be adorable and all, it’s probably best not to keep one inside of your house, right? Aside from the illegality of it, there’s the likelihood of a big hot mess. This house had “feces all over” and was covered in straw that had been soaked in urine, Amick said.
The man told officers he picked the animals up as fawns, thinking they were injured, Amick added. That’s actually something a lot of people call the natural resources police about, particularly in the spring as people spot young fawns who appear to be abandoned. Their mothers may just be off feeding.
People “misinterpret it. They want to bring it home, give it milk,” Amick said. “They don’t know how to care for a wild animal, and that becomes detrimental, and often times leads to their death.”