A 2-year-old male deer named Baby, confiscated last week from a woman allegedly keeping him illegally, has found a new home, the Pennsylvania Game Commission confirmed to HuffPost.
A video taken on Feb. 25 showed Pennsylvania game wardens dragging the deer by a rope as a woman could be heard screaming, “You’re hurting him!”
The clip sparked outrage online, with viewers demanding answers about where the young buck ended up and if he would be safe.
The Game Commission told HuffPost on Thursday that authorities have found “a licensed facility” in the state that was “willing to accept the deer and look after it permanently.” However, the agency is not sharing that location with the public.
Officials accused Tammy Shiery, 64, of unlawfully keeping the wild-born deer as a pet.
Shiery’s neighbors told CBS News affiliate KDKA-TV that they all helped Baby after finding him at a few weeks old. Shiery told the news outlet that she had gotten Baby vaccinated and castrated, and believed she had obtained the proper paperwork to raise him as a farm pet.
However, the game commission told HuffPost that “there is no permit that can be possessed or applied for to retain wildlife.”
There are permits to keep “animals born in captivity that are bought from licensed propagators,” the agency added, but this does not apply to animals born in the wild.
Officials seized Baby from Shiery’s home after receiving a report that a wild deer was being kept as a pet, the agency said.
In a criminal complaint obtained by Pittsburgh station WPXI, police accused Shiery of interfering with a valid search warrant by refusing to open a fence to allow law enforcement access to the deer.
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Court records show she was taken into custody on charges of resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct and taking possession of game or wildlife.
Since Baby has been castrated and “altered to prevent antler growth” and has also become “habituated to people,” he cannot be returned to the wild, the game commission told HuffPost.
After hearing about Baby’s new home, Shiery told KDKA, “We’re pretty emotionally upset right now. It’s very, very hard because, remember, with all that’s going on, we still don’t have our pet.”