A Florida woman is charged with killing an endangered Key deer. Was it a crime or mercy?

A 77-year-old Florida Keys woman is accused of the taking pictures demise of an endangered Key deer and will face a 12 months in federal jail if she’s convicted.

Wendy Kilheffer of Big Pine Key shot the animal on Nov. 16, in response to authorities. In addition to jail time, she would additionally face, if judged responsible, a $100,000 tremendous and a 12 months of supervised launch following her incarceration.

But a Keys environmental group that advocates the Key deer — a species of small white-tail deer distinctive to the Lower Keys and guarded beneath the U.S. Endangered Species Act — says there is extra to the story. The animal, advocates say, was killed out of compassion as a result of it was wounded and in extreme misery for days.

Big Pine residents known as state and federal wildlife authorities to are likely to the male deer, however nobody responded to the scene after greater than two hours, mentioned Valerie Preziosi, president of Save Our Key Deer Inc.

“At that time, someone took it upon themselves to put the agonized buck out of his misery with a shot to the head, as would have been done by an appropriate officer if they ever showed up,” Preziosi mentioned in a assertion.

Kilheffer was charged final Thursday. She has been launched on $10,000 bond. Her legal professional, David Paul Horan, didn’t instantly reply to a request for a touch upon the case.

According to Preziosi, the state of affairs started seven days earlier than the deer was killed. A Big Pine Key resident discovered the animal “violently thrashing” between two fences with a rope entangled in its antlers and the fences. The repeated thrashing brought about cuts on either side of the deer’s physique, Preziosi mentioned.

The resident was capable of free the deer, however wasn’t capable of take away all of the rope. Another resident contacted Save Our Key Deer, which contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s wildlife hotline.

The similar day, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brokers and Save Our Key Deer volunteers tried unsuccessfully to seek out the wounded animal.

The deer wasn’t seen once more till Nov. 16, the day it was killed. According to Preziosi, Big Pine residents discovered the buck mendacity down and in “extreme distress.” They eliminated the rope and tried giving the deer water.

“The buck drank some water, got up, but then collapsed on the street,” Preziosi mentioned. The folks on the scene once more known as the FWC hotline, she mentioned.

Meanwhile, they moved the deer to a shaded space on a non-public property.

“The severely suffering deer was having trouble breathing and, from descriptions by people at the scene, was likely suffering from organ failure due to ‘capture myopathy’ — a condition induced by severe stress he experienced in the past days,” Preziosi mentioned.

Preziosi mentioned each the state and federal governments don’t have sufficient sources within the space to handle Key deer and to answer distressed animals. FWC and U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers weren’t instantly obtainable to answer these criticisms.

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Preziosi mentioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decreased workers and volunteers inside the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key, and Florida Fish and Wildlife’s hotline is routed to the mainland and doesn’t particularly pertain to Key deer. That means an excessive amount of time can go by earlier than a federal or state wildlife officer responds to conditions like this.

While the Save our Key Deer group “does not condone this action due to potential public safety issues, it understands what led up to it,” Preziosi mentioned. “The present lack of interest and resources for the maintenance of the endangered Key deer is in stark contrast to past management practices and is not only detrimental to the deer but also builds ever-increasing animosity between the management agencies and residents of the Keys that interact with the animals on a daily basis.

“For both deer and human reasons,” she mentioned, “this situation needs to change.”