B.C. man spotted carrying fawn through liquor store fined by conservation officer

A baby deer that was carried by a man through a liquor store in Invermere, B.C. this month was quickly reunited with its mother, thanks to a B.C. conservation officer.

The man, meanwhile, has learned a costly lesson about what not to do when finding an unaccompanied animal on the side of a road.

BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) member Greg Kruger said he got a call from RCMP on June 15 after reports of the man walking into a downtown liquor store with a female while carrying a fawn.

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Surveillance video from the store allowed Kruger to identify the man and pay him a visit, where the story became clear regarding where the baby white-tailed deer came from.

“I asked him why he had a live fawn, and he told me he found it west of Invermere lying on the side of the road,” Kruger said.

“He told me he saw ravens flying up ahead and assumed the mother was dead and this fawn was orphaned, so he brought it down to save it.”

But the man made a critical mistake, Kruger said, by not contacting BCCOS immediately after finding the fawn.

After hearing the man’s story, Kruger seized the fawn and brought it back to where it was found, and used an electronic call to mimic the fawn’s cry to call for its mother.

“Within 20 to 30 seconds, a mature white-tailed doe came running in,” Kruger said. “I let the fawn out of the kennel and left the area, and when I came back about an hour later it was reunited with its mother.”

Kruger then issued the man a $345 ticket for unlawful possession of wildlife.

The officer said the man should not have picked it up and carried it around downtown, and should have made sure the mother was indeed dead with help from conservation officers.

But Kruger doesn’t doubt the man’s intentions.

“He indicated the reason why he was downtown was there was a pet store there, and that’s where he was going to take it to get advice on what to do with it, but it was closed,” Kruger said.

“He just should never have picked that fawn up in the first place without letting us know,” he added.

Global News has reached out to RCMP in Invermere for more information.