It’s pretty simple. If you aren’t sure what you are shooting at, don’t shoot.
Wisconsin has a pretty straightforward law when it comes to the hunting of albino deer. If a deer is all white except for the heads, hoofs or tarsal glands, then you can’t kill it. However, for one hunter, he shot one seemingly by mistake. As soon as this hunter realized what he’d done, he turned himself in. Had he not turned himself in and was caught, his story may have been a little harder to believe.
According to the report, this hunter only saw the brown of the buck’s head before he fired. There is no information pertaining to the weather where he was hunting. If the area was covered with snow, it would be harder to tell, but in this hunter’s defense, the deer in question does have a brown head. However, on the other hand, the deer has an entirely white body. How this hunter could have aimed his gun and shot into the vitals without noticing that is hard to understand. Regardless, it was a clean shot and the deer went down.
The remains of this deer will be sent to a local taxidermist to be put on display to help other local hunters understand the difference between an albino and a typical whitetail deer.
According to biologists, as few as 1 in 100,000 deer are born albino. Wisconsin isn’t the only state that protects these deer. Illinois and Iowa, as well as counties in Montana and Tennessee, also make shooting these deer illegal.
No indication has been given as to what punishment this hunter will receive, if any, from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
NEXT: POSSIBLE WORLD-RECORD DEER SPOTTED IN INDIANA
The post Hunter Shoots Protected Albino Deer in Wisconsin appeared first on Wide Open Spaces.
