Civil Liberties

Wisconsin Animal Shelter Raided Over Baby Deer

Deer killed off site

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no wildlife
Reason

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources got to use their guns when they raided an animal shelter over a baby deer last month.

From WISN 12 News:

"It was like a SWAT team," shelter employee Ray Schulze said.

Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.

"(There were) nine DNR agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth," Schulze said.

The focus of their search was a baby fawn brought there by an Illinois family worried she had been abandoned by her mother.

The department claimed they got anonymous calls about the deer; owning wildlife is against the law in Wisconsin. The agents managed not to kill the deer on sight, but it was taken off site and euthanized. Asked by WISN whether the agents could've called the shelter in advance to resolve the situation peacefully, a department supervisor compared that to a sheriff's department calling in advance of a drug raid. So it's not just local police departments looking to play soldier.

h/t fish

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