To: Deborah Markowitz, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Governor Phil Scott
Vermont's Policy to shoot orphaned or injured fawns
Vermont should join its neighboring states in allowing the safe, legal rehabilitation of orphaned and injured fawns. To shoot or starve these animals is not only bad public relations and policy, it results in an "underground railroad" of secret attempts to save these animals—and most of all, it is a cruel and unnecessary policy that needs to change.
Why is this important?
Earlier this summer, my neighbor found a dead doe in her woods. Soon, she heard the crying of two, days old fawns. She was told that if the Fish and Game Department was called they would shoot the fawns, so she listened to them cry of two days.
When she told me, I went into the woods and was able to bring one fawn out. My neighbor and I cared for her for a week while I tried to find a safe rehabilitation center to bring her to. At the end of the week, just hours before transporting her to a safe place, a Fish and Game Warden arrived at my home while I was away, searched my property (without a search warrant), found the fawn on my back porch, seized her and shot her.
This kind of cruel and traumatic behavior will continue each spring in Vermont unless people speak out and strongly object to this policy. Please help.
When she told me, I went into the woods and was able to bring one fawn out. My neighbor and I cared for her for a week while I tried to find a safe rehabilitation center to bring her to. At the end of the week, just hours before transporting her to a safe place, a Fish and Game Warden arrived at my home while I was away, searched my property (without a search warrant), found the fawn on my back porch, seized her and shot her.
This kind of cruel and traumatic behavior will continue each spring in Vermont unless people speak out and strongly object to this policy. Please help.