I was originally going to postmortem this video for the Animal Rescue Postmortem series volume ten. However, when researching for another video I came across multiple news reports about this incident. This prompted me to make the video you are about to watch. I have over 20 years experience performing euthanasia’s on many animal species in shelters and in the field and I’ve never seen anything like what happens in the video recorded by the officials themselves.

In most of my postmortems I don’t call out individuals. It’s all about learning from what is shown in the video. Not assigning blame. However when the actions result in what I perceive as criminal something must be said. In the year 2023 there is no excuse for what is witnessed in the video. No possible way to misinterpret individual actions.

This deer suffered at the hands of government officials that, just late last year should have known better. Ignorance of the law is no excuse is what law enforcement tells us without hesitation. The individuals that responded to this incident need further training and a written reprimand on their employment record. Or possibly never working with animals again.

In this case there were no exigent circumstances that required the immediate euthanasia of the deer that had it’s throat cut twice and a gunshot to the thorax that took 19 minutes to die by my count. There was plenty of time to use chemical capture, chemical immobilization and then properly euthanize the deer using acceptable methods. Even if there had been exigent circumstances that required immediate euthanasia proper euthanasia procedures could have been followed.

I do quote Florida State Statues to make my case. If I got any of my interpretations of the statues wrong please contact me here or comment directly on the videos comments section explaining what I got wrong. Still a little confused about 828.23 using the word “exemption”. I fail to see what is written as an exemption to any of Florida’s animal welfare laws.

I said the video is long. It’s one hour and thirty seven minutes. Sorry for the length but I’m not sophisticated enough to make it shorter. I should also warn you there will be blood. If that upsets you don’t watch the video.

Click below to watch the video.

Big Boss- Rescue Chief/Founder

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