ROMANCE, AR – From tame to strange, Daniel Ross has some version of just about every kind of animal you can imagine on his land.
But today, he’s missing two deer.
“I said any possibility of you leaving and coming back tomorrow and me having six deer? And he’s like no that’s not going to happen,” said Ross as he recalled his conversation with the Game and Fish Commission officer regulating the amount of pet deer he had on his land.
Ross says the officer forced him to shoot two of his eight deer because he was over the legal limit.
“He’s like I don’t care which ones you shoot but two of them have got to die,” said Ross.
Game and Fish say Ross did have other options like turning the animals over to a wildlife rehabilitator so the deer can eventually return to the wild.
“They will gradually convert that animal over and get it used to eating native vegetation,” said Corey Gray, a deer biologist with the commission.
But Ross says the officer didn’t tell him that.
“I have a guilty conscience about what I did,” said Ross. “I killed an innocent animal – an innocent pet of mine.”
A new state law bans Arkansans from collecting deer as pets. If you already have a pet deer, you’re allowed up to six.
Game and Fish officials say the officer’s visit was purely to ticket Ross for mixing sexes in the pen.
“Wildlife do not make good pets so it’s best just to leave them where they’re at,” said Gray.
But these aren’t wild deer to Ross.
“I don’t have a problem with getting rid of two deer,” he said. “I have a problem with murdering two innocent pets.”
If you have a pet deer you need removed, visit this website for a list of rehabilitation centers in the state.
