Related Articles Marin deer shooting ignites fireball of outrage A Tiburon man was arrested after fatally shooting a doe and her fawn that were eating his yard plants.

The animals suffered side wounds and died a prolonged death, according to the Tiburon Police Department and Marin Humane. The fawn lived somewhat longer than its mother.

Mark Thomas Dickinson, a 54-year-old pilot, was booked into Marin County Jail on an animal cruelty count, police said. He was released on bail pending further review by the Marin County District Attorney’s Office.

Dickinson did not respond to a request for comment but referred the inquiry to his lawyer, Charles Dresow.

“The Tiburon police should not have arrested my client and booked him into jail,” Dresow said. “He had no intent to be cruel or to harm the deer. Rather he was simply trying to scare them away from consuming new landscaping.”

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. Saturday at Dickinson’s residence on Mar East Drive, where a landscaped slope leads from the street down to the bayside residence.

A neighbor called police after hearing shots and seeing a flashlight beam outside. Police arrived to find the injured deer and called in Marin Humane, the animal welfare organization, said Tiburon police Sgt. Steve Hahn.

Both deer died before an animal control officer could reach the site, which is at the eastern tip of the Tiburon Peninsula.

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Police contacted Dickinson, who said the deer were eating his landscaping. The weapon was a high-powered Gamo pellet-gun with scope, laser and flashlight attachments, Hahn said.

“They died agonizing and painful deaths,” Hahn said.

Marin Humane took the dead animals for examination, said spokeswoman Lisa Bloch. The organization will conduct X-rays to see where the pellets penetrated the deer, she said.

Bloch called the incident “really sad and disturbing.”

“It did cause great suffering,” she said. “There’s all kinds of ways to keep deer from eating your landscaping. Their only crime was eating vegetation. They weren’t menacing anyone. No one was in danger.”

The website for Gamo markets its guns for hunting small game such as rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and crows, and as “pest control” for “nuisance animals such as mice, rats, birds and snakes.”

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