No good deed goes unpunished: Couple facing jail time for nursing deer back to health

Its unbelievable the amount of insanity that comes from government agencies these days. A couple decided to help a poor little baby deer with and infected leg and now, they face fines and even jail time for their compassionate deed.

Indiana couple faces jail time, fine for nursing injured deer back to health


An Indiana couple who spent two years nursing an injured fawn back to health now face jail time for the act of human kindness.

State officials charged Jeff and Jennifer Counceller with unlawful possession of a deer — a misdemeanor crime that carries up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, according to The Indianapolis Star.


Jeff Counceller, a Connersville police officer, said he was responding to a house call when he saw the animal on the porch.

She could barely stand and had a wound infested with maggots, he said.

The Councellers contacted the state Department of Natural Resources, who told them to send the animal back into the wild. They also called petting zoos and animal rescue agencies, but no one wanted her, they said.


Returning the animal into the woods “would have been a death sentence," Jeff Counceller told The Star.

As a last resort, the couple left the deer at their 17-acre farm with every intention of releasing it once it was stronger, they said.

NY Daily News

The state came out to euthanize the deer because they deemed it a menace to society but, conveniently, it has slipped out of its enclosuer the day before and is now believed to be living free out in the great outdoors.



It just goes to show; when bureaucratic insanity prevails, even the men who are charged with enforcing the law are not immune. The family now has an ongoing online petition going on trying to pressure authorities to drop the charges.

You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Is that even a true law "unlawful possession of a deer" lmao have fun explaining that to your next job why you got arrested.

So let me get this right? They went through all the trouble of saving it just for the State of Indiana to come along and say they had to kill it? Oh..that's a real 'life matters' approach to wildlife management, isn't it??? I wonder, if they DID have any valid point here, are there NO zoos in our entire nation that would benefit from a healthy and partially domesticated fawn like that? I mean, when outright killing it was the State's only apparent idea to handle this.

All sorts of folks help wildlife in distress....Indiana ought to hang their collective government head in shame for this. When did killing things just become standard SOP??? I get it on a predatory species too comfy with man. I understand it entirely. Deer aren't predatory though. (Imagines Bambi with a sub-gun to shoot back with....err....Nope. can't get there)

While i can see where this would come under the heading of "unjust law" . The fact is that man has taken deers natural predator out of the wild. This resulted in deer populations becoming out of control and a danger on public roads. Indiana is a major farming state and can destroy crops too. That said. They should not have been arrested for their act of kindness. Where i am, that deer would actually be sausage by now.

Oh deer!
That is beyond stupid. All these rules...
So if I walk down the street and find one of these people from the government lying around wounded, best would be not to help. So that I do not end up with unlawful possession of a bureaucrat.

Don't let them fool you.
This is all about the money. They won't spend any time in Jail, as long as they pay the fine.

Another shining example of the stupidity of those in positions of authority.
Glad to hear the deer "mysteriously" escaped.

First and foremost.. I am a deer hunter...

Still even with that fact.. I would still nurse and injured deer back to health.. It's just the right thing to do..

However I can see the logic to this law although this is not the proper application of it.

A lot of farmers I'm sure possess these animals because they want some grain fed venison and intend on eating the animal. In this case possession of a wild animal should be illegal... They should have to acquire their venison the same way the rest of us do and deer should be wild.

But nursing a fawn back to health?!? I mean cmon...

I don't understand. They took care of the deer for almost two years yet it had a wound infested with maggots? I don't think anyone should be punished for trying to help an innocent animal. They shouldn't however have let the wound get so infected it had maggots.

reply to post by Night Star


It was only that bad after they first took it in. After they had nursed it to health, it wouldn't leave and was probably too young to get by on its own.

Hopefully, now that they have been forced to set it free, it can learn to manage on its own in the wilderness. It still has better chances than if the state had gotten hold of it.