OPINION
Daily Local news
Monday June 7, 2004
In response to the article, "Orphaned deer claimed by
state” (DLN, June 2):
I read it and became enraged with the actions of the
Pennsylvania Game Commission with regard to The orphaned
fawn found by the Wroten family. The original story,
"Family takes in ailing fawn" (DLN, May 27), described
an infant animal that had come to rely on the nurturance
and affection of the Wrotens for its survival.
The game commission justifies its callous actions on the
grounds of public health. Baloney. The risk posed by
this fawn of exposing the Wrotcns to rabies or wasting
disease was so small as to be nonexistent. And if there
is even a shred of legitimacy to this concern, a very
different and humane course of action could have been
taken.
Let’s take the leap of logic the game commission wants
us to make and assume that there was at least some
public health risk involved. In a just world, the
commission would have investigated to determine if the
animal exhibited any signs of illness, and if it did not
(as in this case), informed the Wrotens of the potential
health dangers of caring for this animal.
If the Wrotens opted to assume those risks, the family
should have been educated about the signs a sick animal
would exhibit. Absent those signs, the Wrotens should
have been permitted to care for this defenseless animal
until it was old enough to be released into the wild, or
moved to a petting zoo or other appropriate facility,
The enforcement of every law involves some level of
discretion on the part of the officers. My stomach
turned as I read Ed Wroten's description of the Game
commission: officers throwing this infant animal into
their vehicle, taking it to its wholly unnecessary
death.
I have heard other stories of the cruelty and
callousness exhibited by the Pennsylvania Game
Commission, and I am appalled. It is obscene that such
actions are being undertaken, allegedly on behalf of the
public health, and with my tax dollars. Such cruelty is
inexcusable under any law. My state representatives and
senators should immediately modify this law to permit
citizens to temporarily care for orphaned wildlife in
circumstances such as these.
We humans pride ourselves on being the most evolved
species on this planet. The actions of the game
commissions show how that we are among the least
evolved, Indeed, these kinds of actions prove that
humans are among the most savage of species.
JANA NESTLERODE
West Goshen
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