They deserve a chance to live…don’t they?

Steve Mohr, President USP

Another fawning season has come and gone for the whitetail deer of Pennsylvania. For most of us, hunters and non-hunters alike, just seeing all of the newborn wildlife gives us a refreshing feeling.

Coupled with this population boom, comes thousands of phone calls and emails reporting lost or abandoned wildlife. A helpless whitetail fawn will melt the hearts of young and old alike. With over two hundred white spots and big innocent eyes, most folks cannot resist the temptation to help them and most abandoned fawns will end up going home with the rescuer. In most cases, these fawns are not lost or abandoned. Mom is usually within sight, hearing and scent distance. She stays away to simply draw predators away from the fawns’ location.

Once these fawns are picked up and removed from their natural environment, their lives will have changed forever. Only after these fawns are picked up, does the Good Samaritan begin to ask questions. “What do I feed it? How do I take care of it? Who do I call?” After a lengthy time of debate, a phone call is usually made. The call will go to the Police, directly to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) or perhaps a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

In the densely populated region of South East PA, many of these fawns will end up at a licensed rehab center. These rehab centers are not funded by the PGC. They are usually staffed by dedicated volunteers and depend on donations to help meet their financial needs.

Upon arrival at the rehab centers, the fawns are given the best, dedicated and mindful care possible. The length of stay often depends upon the availability of space at the facility. Some rehab centers can hold 20 or more newborn fawns at any given time.

When it is time to move on, the call will be made to the PGC dispatcher. The dispatcher will inform the local Wildlife Conservation Officer (WCO) to prepare for arrangements to pick up these fawns. The WCO will call the facility and arrange for the pick up in preparation for release back into the wild. Many WCO’s have relayed to me that this is “…not their favorite detail.”

The WCO will arrive at the facility with enough crates, cages, boxes, etc, to transport the fawns to a location suitable for release. I’ve also had WCO’s tell me that multiple trips had to be made to pick up the fawns. After thanking the rehab facility leadership and its staff for their time and dedication, the WCO will then proceed to the site of release. With the nervous, big-eyed passengers in tow, they all arrive at a somewhat remote location. At this final location, one by one all of the fawns are removed from the vehicle and KILLED. In the South East, the means of death is most often DEATH BY CLUBBING. I had one WCO tell me that CLUBBING was the easiest and quietest. He had said “All I have to do is bend over and hold out my thumb. When they reach out for what they think is a bottle, I whack them on the head with a hammer handle. Then I throw them over a bank or into a pit.”

Folks if you are not furious, sick in the stomach, teary eyed or feeling helpless, you had best check if you still have a pulse. No, it is not a favorite task of the WCO. Every year, hundreds, if not thousands of fawns, meet their fate at the hands of the PGC. This is all simply because of a past PGC Executive Director who made a policy that all fawns taken from the wild will be killed. There are other options.

Where is the public outcry? Every year, on a global level, people protest the clubbing of seals. Why does Pennsylvania accept the clubbing of the fawns…or what are commonly referred to as Bambi?

Blue Sky, Steve

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