I’m not even going to pretend to be neutral on this. I’m appalled. It makes me sick. Please go read the story and listen to what these police officers did without so much as knocking on these peoples doors to ask them some questions about these fawns. They were not keeping them. They just came to eat and hang out. I feed the deer and I get an awful lot of enjoyment out of it and if anyone came on my land and killed two animals like this without knocking on my door I’d be fit to be tied. !!!! This is the woman who called the DNR and is now so sorry.
I’m sorry. This was totally unnecessary. This was also dangerous. It also wasn’t like they were armed rapists. They were 2 fawns. What if children had been around or their pets.
I wish I felt better by writing this but I don’t. I’d also like to know why we have to see their dead carcasses on every newscast. It’s my prediction this will go on for a while because these people did nothing wrong and are heartsick.
Do you think this officer had to right to storm this persons property and just start shooting early in the AM like this?
Us Girls..Our Views 
I understand your anger completely. However it is misplaced. Your anger should be directed at the man who dressed them up like a pet! You know how deer are. They are like ghosts. Here one second gone the next. If cops took the time to knock on the door there is no telling if or when they would have seen them again.
Sadly, this is what happens when people treat wild animals like their pets. That man should face some consequences!
I must agree with you mssc, perhaps if they wouldnt of been collared they would still be out roaming around. how stupid of the people who thought they could dress them up in collars to identify them, plus how dangerous for the animals that collar was.
Yes deer are cute, however they are not pets. They should not be wearing collars. It’s great and all if you want to feed them and watch them eat. But you don’t go walking up to them like they are your pets. What if those collars that the deer were wearing got caught somewhere out in the wilderness and got the deer stuck somewhere? It just wasn’t a good idea to begin with.
true …but it still doesn’t relieve the cop of his stupid trigger happy action, whether ok’d or ordered by the DNR or not!!
The DNR in Minnesota is and has been all to ready to shoot first and put the animals life second, stupid thinking!!
Well, I’m sure the people had no idea that the collars would endanger the deer, but now I hope more people find out about this. Those deer died needlessly.
I have a gazillion deer around my house. I would never collar one. I don’t even feed them; I’m pretty sure it’s illegal here, plus it encourages overpopulation which leads to starvation and lots of traffic accidents. I would never approach a fawn for fear that its mother would freak out and stop caring properly for the fawn. And I’d never approach a grown wild deer because they could kick my butt. I just like to watch them. Because of the way our yard is set up, they come quite close to our house just eating whatever plants are naturally growing.
I shoot deer but with my camera to capture their natural beauty in the state parks etc!!
The problem is with the gun happy forest lake police and the stupid antics of the DNR..we are the laughing stock of the nation with these bozos!!
The cops are simply looking for target practice, and it really is to bad they didn’t shoot at something that could shoot back, the cowards, where are they when a real crime is committed you can’t find them!!
Other states try to tranquilize animals first and save their lives but not Minnesota!! The Fools!!
Good points Phil but I imagine that tranquilizer guns are specialty tools not readily available to the beat cops on patrol. You can’t really have a couple of officers (whio patrol that area) with tranquilizer guns in their patrol cars “just in case” they see two deer fawns with colars. Then if a crazed, rabid, aggressive animal shows up else where and the tranq guns are in the trunk of another patrol car hunting down two deer fawns…
With regards to property rights. I am a huge fan of property rights. However, I am a bigger fan of personal responsibiilty. This could have all been avoided had Mr. Numnb Skull not dressed those wild animals up like pets.
And as far as being the laughing stock of the nation; that news hasn’t made it down to us yet. Matter of fact I can’t remember the last time I saw anything at all on the national news about Minnisota. Do you?
Having said all that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some measure of truth about your law enforcement agents being a bit too eager to throw down.
Follow up….Where are the property rights of citizens in Minnesota! to have a cop come onto your property at 7am and start shooting defenseless animals? come on this scenario could have ended in human life endangered!!
Evidently like so many other things regarding our rights are being violated daily, and what you read and hear regarding property rights etc is just B.S.. it’s all in the power of law enforcement!! and they call this country free?? WHAT A BUNCH OF HIPPOCRITES!!
I agree where are our property rights??
We don’t have any contrary to what we are led
To believe by big brother!
A phone call from the trigger happy cop
Is all it would have taken to stop this
Slaughter which was unnecessary!
Don’t forget it was donut time at 7 am, so why worry about protocol!!
I’m sure the cops were just doing what they were told to do!!! Also, may I remind you that this all could have been avoided if the person didn’t try to make pets out of a deer!
Protocol? Really? So, “STOP POLICE!” Then if they flee shoot them? Or handcuff them and read them their rights?
Protocol. That’s hillarious!
Phil, now be honest, just how many times have you been arrested for driving under the influence. Put the bong down and get over your fixation of doughnuts, firearms and flashing blue lights.
I wish there was a “like” button. lol
I understand they are concerned about disease., and the cops were doing what they were told. I also understand that they should not have been made into pets. None of that makes me feel any better about it. 😦
Maybe they should have spoke to the land owners first. They should have tried other options, rather than just start shooting. That’s just my opinion!
You are absolutely right!!
The mentality of these bozos that did the shooting is understandable as they love target shooting at anything that can’t shoot back!! NO DANGER THERE!!
Plus they can eat their donuts!!
you’re obviously against all cops!
Well Think About It?? Where are they when they are really needed to protect us against criminals?? Very hard to find, i.e.example they are out shooting defenseless animals on private property that they have no right being on considering the circumstances!!..There was no risk to life, no rabid life endangering animals, just two fawns that were on a private landowners property with his permission!!
So I say to you….when you need em they aren’t there!!
They’ve always been there for me when I needed them. I’m not going to put a blanket statement over all cops. Not all are fools, not all are trigger happy.
oh please phil,
The police can not always be in the right place at the right time to protect you. not all cops sit in the donut shop and not all cops are trigger happy.
think about why this happened in the first place. because they were collared.. had they not been they probably would be in the mans back yard again this morning.
unfortunetly these animals wouldve never made it past deer hunting season of next year, If not road kill by then they wouldve walked up to some deer hunter because they were unafraid of them because this man decided to try and make them pets and they wouldve been in the hunters freezer,simple as that.
“just two fawns that were on a private landowners property with his permission!!”
HAHAHAHA! With his permission.
“Honey, did you hear that?”
“What.”
“That sound. It sounded like little cloven hooves knocking on the back door. I wonder who that could be? I already gave two of the fawns each a colar and permission to come over any time they want.”
HAHAHAHAHA (I think someone has prison tats)
I can understand shooting a deer if instructed by someone with the authority to give that instruction. After all, for most of America, deer are not pets but potentially game. Granted, we do not eat fawns, but if there was a real concern about spreading disease, then this action could have been viewed as saving the overall wild deer population. Cops probably see dead deer all the time (the ones that run in front of cars on the road) and it’s probably not that emotional for them after a point.
So I hesitate to demonize the cop who was following orders.
Phil, I really don’t appreciate your comments about police officers. I’m also not really sure why you keep changing your email address in the comment box. All that does is change your icon. Your IP address is the same so I’m just wondering why you’re doing that. You don’t need to do that but we would appreciate your respect. Police officers lives are on the line every time they walk out the door and this post isn’t about the police.
I see all the above reasons for this being done. I KNOW about all that. I’m more upset at HOW it was done. Just imagine you’re sleeping and you wake up to the sounds of gunshots. Closer to my house than my garage is and someone is that close to my house shooting a gun. Killing two fawns.
That man shouldn’t have put the collar on them. Does that make this okay? He’s a really big dink isn’t he? Mean old man feeding deer? Come on. This would have all worked out if they’d at least knocked on these peoples doors and given them a heads up? You are all saying that someone shooting a gun 50 yards from where you and your family is sleeping is okay? So okay, he shouldn’t have done the collar thing but really, where did they think these two fawns were in a facility? In the middle of the country? Did anyone report animals from a zoo missing? Just where did they think they came from? I don’t buy that either.
I agree totally with Nikki. I understand why it was all done but I’m heartsick over it at the same time. I have two geese who come every spring and lay their eggs in the swamp. I can’t imagine the DNR coming on to my property while I was asleep and shot them. I look forward to that all year and pray they make it back safe each year. This was just senseless and I do think there were a lot of mistakes made. Someone really dropped the ball.
Joy, which is it? The age and harmlessness of the animal being shot or that human life was potentially put at risk?
It’s not the age or even what kind of animal it was. It’s that someone comes on your land that close to your house and just starts shooting. Then the fawns just seemed to make it worse. If you really knew me you’d know I’d feel bad if this was a robin.
Okay based on the information the various law enforcement agencies had how would you have made certain that these two fawns were secured.
The only thing I can think of is they could have gone to the woman who made the initial call and intervieded her neighbors too see if anyone knew what was going on. That would have likely prevented any of this. But that should have begun at the DNR stage. Once the beat cop gets the information his only resonsibility is to protect and serve. And even though he was close to someone’s home the trajectory of the ammunition would have been from up to down with any rounds not hitting the target going into the ground in very close proximity of the target.
I agree this vacuums. AND perhaps if the woman who saw the fawns with colars on them had done a little looking around and asking some questions….
I think this cop didnt have much of a choice but to shoot when seen instead of knocking on the door and warning the home owner, a normal deer upon seeing someone is going to bolt, his ordered was if he seen them shoot them. so when he see’s them im sure he is thinking they are going to run when they see him so he had to do it the way he did…
Its all a unfortunate situation..
i even felt bad for the deer i hit last night on the road which put a small dent in my truck….grrrrr but i think the deer came out of it ok.
It was a clusterF@ck in my opinion. Just sad all around.
Drive faster!
Now that I think about it some more, I agree that nobody has any business telling the cops to shoot in residential areas unless human life is at risk. There is the chance that a human could get hurt, and it also gets people nervous and upset. If it were me, I’d probably have the dog catcher go get the critters and then do whatever they do. I don’t think knocking on the doors while people are sleeping would be the best idea (the fawns could have strayed far from the home of the person who collared them, and who wants the cops waking them up in the morning to ask about a deer they know nothing about?). But maybe holding them at the dog pound to see if anyone called about them would make sense.
The report was (due to the fawns having colars on) they could have escaped from scientific facility. So the danger to humans was the spread of an unknown disease.
From where? We don’t have any of those anywhere around here AND the “collars” look like scrunchies that girls wear in their hair. If anyone thought those were scientific, we have another argument. These were babies.
It said in the article that there was a scare “up north” with Bovine Tuberculosis, and the DNR guy (Capt. Gregory Salo) also cited Chronic Wasting Disease from 2010.
Honestly, it sounds like they’re really reaching to cover their backsides on this one.
I wasn’t argueing Joy. I was trying to explain (as I understood it) that DNR received a call from a woman and then DNR assumed (based on the discription from the woman) that since the fawns had collars on they surely must be escapees from some scientific research facility and therefore could have possibly been injected with some biohazard as research.
But I get it. It was handled horrible from the git go.
“Bio-hazard research.” Where in the world did you read that? That’s not at all what this was about.
Collar = domestic.
If I have a cranky dog on my property, even wandering around on other’s property, but it’s wearing a collar, the police will knock on my door first. If it’s a pony, the police will knock first.
The presence of a collar implies domestication, therefore, why was there any concern that the deer would vanish? Obviously, they were domestic enough to be collared, they’re domestic enough to return. The cop should not have shot first and asked questions later.
Further, nobody should be shooting that close to a house, unless you’re target shooting. And in that situation, you’ve set up a safe range, and cleared it of anyone and any thing (animals) that might get hurt.
I completely support the police, and recognize that the majority of them are not pot-bellied, coffee-swilling, donut eating dunderheads. However, in this situation, they were completely off-base. A simple questioning of the homeowner would have revealed that the deer were NOT a product of that bovine scare, and WERE simply wild fawns that began feeding in a back yard.
Was the homeowner completely wrong for “domesticating” the deer? Probably, for the reasons stated – it’s just not a good idea to partially domesticate a wild animal. If you’re going to do it, do it completely, build a fence, vaccinate the animal, and be responsible for it, for its whole life. But I don’t think he’s wrong for just feeding them. Plenty of people put out deer licks, bird feeders, and the like. Doesn’t mean that it’s open season for the cops to come onto private property and start shooting at the inhabitants.
Very well said, Laura! I agree with every word.
Well apparently collar also equals scientific experiment.
Did you even read the article or listen to the news clip? This wasn’t in Mpls or in the city “near” any facilities of any kind. These people all have land which critters frequent. This was done way too quickly. If they did think they were domesticated, they wouldn’t be “ghost-like” and disappear because they’d be used to people and they were “at home.” This whole thing makes no sense and I’m not knocking the police. I just think this particular officer acted way too quickly, way too close to someones house and if it were me and my land, I’d already have charges pressed which is what I believe these people are now in the process of doing.
To me, it was HOW it was done and not WHY. I know stuff like this happens sometimes but this is beyond my reasoning.
There was NO mention of scientific experimentation. It was because of disease. We don’t have “labs” like that here.
It read, “They say the deer were collared, leading them to believe they escaped from a facility, and with the threat of disease, they had no choice.” The DNR says it is illegal to raise wild animals” inwhich by them putting collars on them made them believe that was the situation. Deer are not pets they are wild animals, its not illegal to feed them, admire them. bottom line is this man messed up when he put those collars or scrunchies or whatever he put on them. when he put these things on the necks of the deer did he ever think that those deer could’ve gotten caught up in tree branches/fences or what ever other obstacles that are out there to get caught up in that collar? Ive seen dogs get hung by collars, it was a very dangerous thing.
The article mentioned he just about hit the deer with his squad car before they ran off into this mans yard. would this be an issue if they were shot out in the woods and not in the mans yard?
If these fawns were shot outside this yard (out in the wild), I wouldn’t have written this. The bottom line to me is this was dangerous for people also. I think it’s wrong to just waltz into someones yard as start shooting anything. What if there were reports of a dog attacking someone and a cop pulls into your yard and shoots your dog 50 yards from your house because it fits the description of the dog? What if Hunter ran out or Rocco?
well they didnt just shoot anything, they were marked with collars because some home owner needed to identify them for his own personal reasons.
Very true. My late uncle accidentally killed a boy because he stupidly shot a gun into the ground and the bullet ricocheted. You don’t shoot guns around people or homes, whether you’re a cop or not, unless it’s to get someone out of imminent danger. The “possibility” that a critter might spread a bovine disease to other critters does not qualify. The APL should have handled it (without a dangerous weapon) given the nature of the assumed threat.
You are totally correct!!
If you watch the video you will notice you don’t see no neighbors like i was thinking there was, you see nothing but woods and wilderness around his home, the fear of possibly shooting another person or thing im sure was not a issue in this case.
It is totally unacceptable…the actions of the DNR and the forest lake police department!!