Residents of an East Oakland neighborhood are upset after Oakland police killed a wayward deer over the weekend.
On Saturday morning, an officer spotted the young deer that had wandered into the area and chased it in his patrol car. The deer jumped over a fence and into the backyard of Kim McLemore' house on 90th avenue.
Police evacuated the area and, under orders to "dispatch the deer," shot it seven times before it died. Animal control officers were also on the scene.
Officials said the deer was gunned down because "it was acting disoriented in an urban environment." Holly Joshie from the Oakland Police Department also said, "There were many children and area residents and the officers did make a decision that the deer was a public safety issue."
Kids thrilled by their four-legged visitor were confused by the shooting, said Anthony Weems, who caught the shooting on video. You can watch part of his footage in the KGO report (above).
"That's a deer, you know. They [the children] don't know any better," said Weems. "They just know it's a deer. And they're all like, 'Why are they back there shooting Bambi?' You know, 'Why are they back there killing a deer'?"
Weems and other residents believed the killing was unnecessary. "They didn't have to do that," said McLemore. "They could have figured something else out, right?"
According to Susan Heckly of the Lindsay Wildlife Center, they could have tranquilized the deer or set it free.
But officers from OPD and animal control are not trained to use tranquilizers on animals, reports KTVU.
"We are going to review this procedure and in the future we really are going to come up with something else. There has to be a better way to handle this situation," said Joshie.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?entry_id=62772