Man fined for living with 2 deer at his home

Matthew Diebel | USA TODAY

A West Virginia man has paid dearly for keeping two deer at his home.

Ronnie Chapman of Ona, a rural community about 25 miles west of the state capital, Charleston, says he found a deer bleeding to death in his yard a couple of years ago and nursed it back to health.

"I don't see where I've hurt anything or done anything wrong, but I sure paid for it," Chapman told WSAZ, a Charleston-Huntington TV station, after paying a $300 fine on Tuesday.

The animal caper started on July 4, the station reported, when West Virginia Department of Natural Resources officers showed up at Chapman's home after receiving a complaint. They say they found two deer, one of them a six-point buck and the other an adolescent, living in the home as pets.

Joshua Addesa, one of the officers who responded, told the Huntington Herald-Dispatch that the older animal had been in the home for about two years and the younger for a year

Addesa told the West Virginia Gazette that the homeowner claimed he "was basically rehabilitating" the animals. "[That] was his excuse to us."

The officers, though, didn't believe him.

"There was enough compelling evidence that showed they were living full-time in the home," Addesa told WSAZ.

On Tuesday, though, Chapman was still claiming that the deer didn't live in the house.

"If you leave the door open, my wife, they'll follow her through," Chapman told the station, "Just come in and bum a piece of candy, and they're back out the door."

Addesa said that harboring wild creatures can be harmful both to humans and the animals, adding that fawns are less likely to survive when people interfere and deer can be a danger when they're kept in confined spaces.

He told the Herald-Dispatch that full-grown deer can be "destructive forces," and the home showed signs of damage, such as broken windows.

"They are high-energy," he added. "You could be kicked, they could jump at you. They had two bucks, and once they (the deer) rub the velvet off, they have antlers that could be used to impale."

"People trying to do the right thing can mess up nature's system," he told WSAZ.

That appears to be the case here. After the deer were removed on Saturday and released in nearby woods, one of them had returned to Chapman's yard by Tuesday, the station reported.

But Chapman told WSAZ that he's perplexed why he was in trouble for doing what he felt was the right thing.

"He's not hurting anybody where he's at," he said of the older animal. "Why are they going to bother him? He'll come in rut one day, and he'll be gone. That's the way I look at it. Nature's going to take its course."

A neighbor, Carla Blake, told the station that "It's kind of stupid" that Chapman was fined.

"We've got drug dealers all the way around this ridge, and they get a guy because he's got a deer in the house."

Although it is illegal to confine wildlife or secure them in an area where they are not able to roam free, according to the DNR, Addesa told the Herald-Dispatch that it happens quite often.

"Anything from racoons to opossums to bear cubs to full-grown deer," he said of the types of animals the agency has found living with people.

"Wildlife is called that because they're wild animals," he told the Gazette. "There are certain animals in nature not designed or meant to be domesticated. For the public's safety as well as for the animal's safety, it's better not to harbor them and get into this situation."