A Pennsylvania woman was taken into custody after a 2-year-old male deer she claimed as a pet was taken away by authorities alleging she was unlawfully keeping him, multiple local news outlets report.
Tamara Shiery, 64, told CBS News affiliate KDKA-TV she believed she had the proper paperwork to keep the deer, named Baby, as a farm pet. However, while it’s possible in Pennsylvania to legally keep deer that were born in captivity, people cannot legally keep a wild-born deer as a pet, the state Game Commission told KDKA-TV.
Shiery’s neighbors in Bullskin Township, about 48 miles outside of Pittsburgh, told the news outlet they all helped raise Baby after finding him in the wild when he was a few weeks old.
Shiery had given Baby a dog collar, gotten him vaccinated and had him castrated to keep him calm, according to KDKA-TV.
On Tuesday, Shiery was served a search warrant for her property by the Game Commission, and Baby was confiscated. Video obtained by KDKA-TVshows game wardens dragging Baby by a rope as a voice appearing to belong to Shiery can be heard in the background screaming, “You’re hurting him.”
Game wardens had received a call earlier that day about a white-tailed deer buck with a dog collar and ear tags in Bullskin Township and a woman, later identified as Shiery, trying to escort the animal back to a nearby house, according to a criminal complaint obtained by WPXI.
Police said that Shiery was interfering with a valid search warrant when she allegedly refused to open the fence to allow them access to Baby, the outlet reported.
Shiery was taken into custody and was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct and taking possession of game or wildlife, according to court records reviewed by HuffPost. She is due in court for a preliminary hearing on March 6; it’s unclear if she has an attorney representing her.
Baby’s confiscation has since sparked online outrage. Andy Harvey, a game warden with the commission, told KDKA-TV he “received quite a few phone calls” about Baby and has defended the agency’s actions.
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“You have that safety risk. They still have that wild aspect to them,” Harvey said. “An adult male deer in this situation can do some serious damage to a person, kids, other pets, different things like that, and they never lose that wild aspect to them.”
The Game Commission told PennLive earlier this week that it had not euthanized Baby and is trying to figure out the next steps for the deer. Harvey also told KDKA-TV that the deer had been “taken to a licensed facility.”