Oh Deer, That’s Illegal

Game Warden Shaun Bayless got an unusual call Tuesday afternoon about a man walking a whitetailed fawn on a leash in front of the Courthouse.

The man, who asked not to be identified, said he found the fawn a few weeks ago in the West Point area. He believed the mother had died, so he took in the baby deer and began caring for it. He thought the fawn was an axis deer, a non-native species that occasionally escape captivity. That day, he had taken it to a local veterinarian, who also believed it was an axis.

On his way home, the man stopped at the courthouse to take some photos with the deer. That’s when Bayless encountered him. Bayless examined the fawn and sent some photos of it to wildlife biologists. They positively identified it as a white-tailed deer. Axis deer have a shorter snout than white-tails, Bayless said, and axis typically have a dark stripe that runs along their back.

That’s when Bayless had to deliver some bad news: it’s against the law to possess a live white-tailed deer in Texas without a permit.

Bayless thanked the man for caring for the fawn, but he instructed him to take it to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Elgin. The man agreed to do so.

Bayless offered to help the man get the permits needed to become a wildlife rehabilitator. The man said he was interested in doing so, as he had already constructed an enclosure for the deer on his property.

“The best policy for anyone who finds a fawn is to leave it alone,” Bayless said. “If they have questions, they can call me.”