I raised 2 fawns this summer, one buck and one doe. Got both of them when they were only a few days old, I released them last of September and they hung around for several weeks then slowly showed up less and less. We hadn't seen them for 3 weeks and I was beginning to wonder if they'd been killed. This week we had around 12" of snow and we had the kids out playing in the snow and I look and here comes the button buck running to us, but the little doe fawn wouldn't get closer than 50yds. I'm glad they are becoming wild but it was still pretty cool to see him come back and the kids were excited to see them too

I'm glad they came back to see ya but be careful.
Ppp My neighbor raised a buck a few years ago and it eventually had to be harvested becauase it grew a big rack and started approaching some of our neighbors aggressively because it showed no fear of humans.
He was afraid someone would get gored and then sue him.

He sawed its antlers off but it was still aggressive..he even attempted to relocate it via a horse trailer but no such luck.

tame equals easy for someone to kill.

Im all for hunting and harvesting deer, but Hopefuuly a true "hunter" would recognize that the deer was hand raised and would choose to let it pass and not shoot it.

Wheres the sport in shooting a hand raised deer?

My neighbor killed one raised by another neighbor. He knew it would eat from your hand. He called it up.to feed it and slit its throat. To this day I want nothing to do with him.

They didnt tell me til much later and when they did i let him have it..some people might not see the problem with what he did but i do and couldnt stand by and not tell him what a piece of crap i thought he was for doing it.

It didn't change anything but he knows where he stands with me.

you are always gonna have those jerks cathryn,got one adjoining me.....total jerk who kills the yr round. But then again.....in the woods when in a stand or still hunting or whatever.....they wont know that. They will see a deer and if its the type or sex they want they will drop it. Law says its legal
Happened to me last week and it ticked me off but thinking about it from his angle....he didnt know

I get the human attachment to animals. I have raised a few different things. Squirrels, birds. All went into the bush to survive as they could.

Does one humans emotional connection with an animal change how another should view it? I can see fair game if the person doesn't now another has that connection..

case in point two weeks ago. We have a staff house at work. One of the guys who live there came up to me and said that there was a raccoon on the porch and it wouldn't let him near the garbage bag on the porch, and had caused a mess. I wasn't going to have any of that crap on business property, so I walked up to the coon which was behaving a little strangely. Didn't want to leave the porch. So I killed it and threw it on the atv.


Turned out unbeknownst to any of the others who lived int he house, one guy had been feeding it and considered it his "pet". Boy was he mad.

The coon had to go, there is no doubt about that, but it was acting strangely because it was a little sleepy, and half tame,,,

Should I feel bad for killing it?

Like beauty.....its all in the eye of the beholder

Lots of things that are legal still require some judgement...to me feesing a coon thats come a round scavenging foe food and feeding it is a little different from hand raising a deer. And I agree in some caaes a hunter wouldnt know that the deer was tame but in many cases he would. And my ignorant neighbor did.

Sorry rm trapper, I should have started a new thread.

My earliest memory was showing my grandfather a huge wolf spider that lived near my house. I was like six..I saw him every day and knew his hole under the door of the shed. When it came out of it's hole to see what the commotion was, as it always did ..grandpa grabbed a nearby watering can and smashed it.

I can't recall ever being more upset. Six years old and grandpa just killed my huge pet wolf spider. Lol.

Ya, even if I was starving I wouldn't have the heart to do that. It's why I could never raise livestock. In the bush, everyone knows the rules. I am to be avoided. That makes killing fair to me.

I raised these two because the mother had been killed and some guy picked them up and brought them to the rehibiltator, and she was overwhelmed with a lot of animals and called wanting to know if I would help. I knew before I started I would be releasing them and they would be fair game. They both have begun to stay on the mountain behind the house more and the doe will no longer come to close to anyone. If somebody kills them while legally hunting I will have no hard feelings at all.

That is a great picture.