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Message: <blockquote data-quote="soberups" data-source="post: 1186582" data-attributes="member: 14668">Yesterday my wife and I took our grand nephews down to Wildlife Safari in Roseburg, which is basically a giant drive-thru zoo. There is also a petting zoo and exhibit, and one of the animals living there is "Snowball", a Columbia Blacktail deer with a "piebald" genetic mutation that has caused her to have, among other things, a spotted coat. This deer was in the media a few years ago because a local couple found her laying in their field, abandoned by her mother. The couple put her in a pen with their goats and tried to raise her as a pet, which is illegal under Oregon law and a really bad idea. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife confiscated the deer and, bowing to public pressure and media coverage, gave it necessary (and very expensive) veterinary care and sent it to live at Wildlife Safari which is licensed and equipped to provide sanctuary for wild animals. As heartwarming as the story sounds, the reality is that the genetic mutation also causes the deer to have deformed hind legs and other painful health issues. It was abandoned by its mother because it had absolutely no chance of surviving in the wild. The most humane thing that could have been done for this deer was to euthanize it, but by the time the ODFW intervened and took it away there was enough media outcry to make euthanizing it impossible. So now it limps around in a pen at a petting zoo. I was able to feed it by hand and it seems like it has adapted fairly well to life in a zoo, but the whole situation is an example of what not to do when you find an injured or abandoned wild animal. Unfortunately, the best choice about 99% of the time is to do nothing and let nature take its course. I get angry when I see people trying to turn wild animals into pets, that is what dogs and cats are for. Rant over.<a href="http://s1191.photobucket.com/user/soberups/media/null_zpsccbd036c.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/soberups/null_zpsccbd036c.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></blockquote>

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