Behind the Badge - My Wife Wants to Punch You
My Wife Wants to Punch You!
District Game Warden Daniel Hoenke
Now my wife (contrary to the title of this article) is not a violent woman.
She is not a confrontational person or an MMA fighter, but one day last spring I had come home from work, and she asked me what I had been doing that day.
I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of twin fawn whitetail deer in a dog kennel.
I explained to her that the deer had been picked up and kept in the kennel causing the mother to abandon the fawns.
My wife’s expression changed, and she stated, “I would just like to punch them right now, that makes me so angry!”
I understood the feeling because it seems like every year, I have a call or multiple calls on someone who picked up an “abandoned” baby animal.
The truth is deer, pronghorn, racoons and other wildlife do not abandon their young.
The person who picks up the animal usually thinks that they are doing a good deed.
Often people come across the baby wildlife where they had been hidden by momma in a safe and secluded place while she goes to feed.
The baby animal is then picked up never to be rejoined to the mother.
When a baby animal is picked up you are doing more harm than good.
Often a zoo is not able to take them and releasing them into the wild as a baby without a mother is not conducive to survival.
Leave the animal where you found it, and if you really think something bad has happened call your local game warden and they can make the call on what to do next.
So, if you feel as strongly as my wife about wildlife please leave them alone this spring, so when mother comes back the nest is not empty.