Neuty the Nutria, a family's pet nutria that the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries sought to confiscate in 2023. Amid public outcry, they came to an agreement with the family that allowed them to keep Neuty.
From Neuty the Nutria to Little Buck, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has sometimes faced criticism that it deals too harshly with people who take in wild animals.
Now the department is under renewed scrutiny after it recently killed deer being kept by two different families, and after the Natural Resources Commission proposed even further restrictions on rehabilitating wildlife. Some legislators say the law needs to change to give people more leeway to nurse injured or abandoned animals back to health.
But LDWF officials say such policies exist for a reason: to protect animals and people. Deer taken from the wild may lose their fear of humans and can become dangerous, according to the agency. They can also spread diseases between herds if they are taken far enough from their original location.
In Louisiana, it is generally illegal to keep wild animals as pets, and people cannot rehabilitate animals without proper permits. Some animals, such as deer, are not eligible for rehabilitation at all.
Such rules create circumstances where well-meaning Louisianans who want to help animals find themselves running afoul of the law.
That's what St. Helena Parish resident Kimberly Graham said happened to her in July, when wildlife agents took a fawn named BabyBelle from her property and euthanized the animal.
And in December, agents seized and killed a partially blind deer from a family's property in Livingston Parish. The deer, Little Buck, had lived on the family's property for 7 years, according to WAFB, which first reported the story.
Both cases drew the ire of state Rep. Lauren Ventrella, a Republican from Greenwell Springs known for adopting the baby pig Earl "Piglet" Long last year after a Good Samaritan found several men throwing it like a football at a Mardi Gras parade.
"This is our tax dollars being spent to kick down people's doors, euthanize deer," Ventrella said, adding that the LDWF should keep out of the way of people properly caring for animals.
Ventrella, also an attorney representing Graham, believes the state's wildlife rehabilitation regulations are too strict. The department has been interpreting the law "without regard to common sense or humanity," she said, adding that the agency is infringing on people's freedom.
On Aug. 25, during a press conference in front of the white-tailed deer exhibit at the Baton Rouge Zoo, LDWF Secretary Tyler Bosworth pushed back against such accusations.
He described wildlife agents as "fellow Louisianans" who were "doing their jobs, carrying out the laws passed by your elected legislature."
Such laws followed national standards and were "based on protecting animal health, preventing disease and keeping wildlife and people safe," he said.
"These laws, these guidelines, these standards, they're not about government overreach," he said. "They're about fairness, compassion and respect for both people and animals."
Controversial enforcement
One day in late July, a wildlife agent showed up on Graham's property in Greensburg.
A few days earlier, Graham had taken in a sickly fawn that was wandering house to house, she said. Knowing the law, Graham initially wasn't going to help the fawn, she said. But she gave in after two days, when it became apparent the fawn - soon to be dubbed 'BabyBelle' - was without a mother, she said.
Graham used to have a deer-raising license and knew how to care for the fawn, she said. Raising deer is legal in Louisiana with the proper permit, but those animals aren't released into the wild.
The LDWF case report tells a slightly different story. It says Graham had the deer for ten days, not four, and that she found BabyBelle off the side of I-12.
Graham said she told the agent she found the deer near the road because she did not want to involve the people who asked her to take in the fawn. She never reported keeping BabyBelle for 10 days and does not know where that information came from, she added.
Fawns may appear abandoned because their mothers leave them for hours to draw off predators, according to the LDWF. That's one reason not to disturb them, the agency said.
Regardless of the circumstances, the outcome was the same: the LDWF took the fawn and later euthanized her.
"I'm so horribly saddened. It broke my heart because she was going to make it," Graham said. "The law's got to change."
The LDWF also sought to bring criminal charges against Graham for illegal possession of a fawn, but the district attorney's office for the 21st Judicial District Court, which includes St. Helena Parish, declined to prosecute the case.
"It was simply someone trying to help a young deer that was in need of some assistance," said District Attorney Scott Perrilloux. "It seems like discretion could have been better used here by the department."
In the case of Little Buck, who also was euthanized, the family told WAFB they had not broken the law because Little Buck was free to come and go as he pleased. But the LDWF's case report said the deer was kept in a fenced-in enclosure.
In the report, the responding officer said the deer needed to be killed because of uncertainty about his health and origin, and because he was desensitized to humans.
Why the wildlife rules exist
Officials say taking deer from the wild may inadvertently spread disease between herds, and that deer who no longer fear humans can become dangerous.
"Bucks especially are very dangerous simply because of their change in behavior associated with the breeding season," said Johnathan Bordelon, the LDWF's deer program manager. "They become much more aggressive."
With their powerful hooves, even does can cause damage, he said.
A deer taken from one location in the wild and released into another could end up spreading disease, Bordelon said.
Holding a deer in captivity can also harm its health and lower its chances of survival, according to the LDWF.
When the LDWF finds a fawn less than two days after it is taken from the wild, officials can often reunite the animal with its mother, he said.
But beyond that, euthanization may be necessary as the state has limited options for where it can send the deer, he said. Sometimes, the state can place a deer in a zoo or with a licensed game breeder, he said, adding that those cases differ from rehabilitation because the deer do not return to the wild.
State Rep. Brett Geymann, a Republican from Lake Charles who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, said lawmakers should work with LDWF to look for solutions, including possible changes to the law, to prevent more euthanizations.
"We're all in a bad spot. You have a law that says you can't have a deer, and somebody has a deer - what are you going to do?" he said.
'Outlaw quadrupeds'
Geymann and Ventrella also harbor concerns about a recent Wildlife and Fisheries Commission proposal that would ban wildlife rehabilitators from caring for nutria as well as "outlaw quadrupeds" - feral hogs, coyotes and armadillos.
Nutria are an invasive species that cause coastal erosion.
In 2023, the LDWF's attempt to confiscate a couple's pet nutria, Neuty, caused public outrage. The agency reached an agreement that allowed the couple to keep the animal. The new rehabilitation ban would not impact that agreement, the department said.
Meanwhile, outlaw quadrupeds have "a tendency to be destructive and cause human wildlife conflicts," LDWF Wildlife Permits Coordinator Bradley Breland said in a statement.
Coyotes prey on cattle; feral hogs destroy crops; and armadillos damage lawns and gardens, he said.
A "USDA Wildlife Services report stated that coyotes were responsible for 68.8 % of cattle losses and 81.7% of calf losses as a result of predation in Louisiana" in 2010, Breland said. "A 2022 LSU AgCenter report stated that crop damage to feral hogs totaled $91.1 million a year in Louisiana."
But the proposal has sparked pushback from rehabilitators, especially in regard to coyotes.
Amy Shutt, director of The Canid Project, a coyote and fox rehabilitation center, said rehabilitators only care for about six coyotes a year in Louisiana.
"How is that small number of coyotes being rehabilitated, how is that going to affect them being a nuisance?" she said.
Mark Mitchell, director of the Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana, said coyote rehabilitation programs help educate the public about the importance of the animal.
"We want to make sure that we have a stable ecosystem, and coyotes play an important role in that as one of our last big mesopredators." Mesopredators occupy a middle spot in the food chain.
Mitchell would like to see folks on both sides of the issue come together and work toward a resolution, he said.
If the commission's proposal remains as-is, Geymann said he plans to call a meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, which could reject the rule or recommend changes.
"I want to make sure that we do everything we can to encourage and support the rehabilitation community" and "that we're not doing something that we don't need to be doing," Geymann said.