Ready to go before a judge to get “their” deer

Photo courtesy
Stéphane Dubeau has spent several hours per day during the last few months to raise Mem, as a member of the family.

Carl Vaillancourt

Thursday, 5 October 2017 06:30

UPDATE
Thursday, 5 October 2017 06:30

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ROXTON POUND | family of the Montérégie region intends to go to court to recover the custody of his deer Meme that has been placed in a zoological park on Tuesday.

Grandma, a deer domesticated the age of four and a half months, has been raised almost from birth by Stéphane Dubeau and her daughter Érika Dubeau Ménard.

Grandma was so domesticated that he asked for the door to go do his business every day and living with the two dogs of the owner.

Since its discovery, the deer sleeps in a bed adult built specifically for him in their home in Roxton Pound, in the Montérégie region.

“It requires a lot of time, but as I am retired, I’ve been able to train several hours per day. It is perfectly tame, ” said Stéphane Dubeau.

Photo courtesy

Deer and dog get along well.

An infant without a mother

On may 23, he and his daughter Érika have found the fawn lying in a ditch close to the body of the dead mother, obviously caught by a motorist in Acton Vale, Montérégie.

The distress of the baby was visible. This is what drove the father and daughter to bring it back to their home.

However, it is illegal to bring wild animals home. It is recommended to call the wildlife officers when you find an animal in distress so that it can be returned in its natural environment.

“The umbilical cord was still oily. He only had a day or two. He would have died eaten by scavengers, if we had not done anything “, explained yesterday Érika Dubeau Ménard.

Following a complaint, an agent from the protection of wildlife has notified the family that she had five days to find a refuge at Grannie, otherwise the deer would be seized by the protection of wildlife.

Upset, Érika had no other choice than to bring Grandma to the Movies Zoo Tuesday morning, a zoological park in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle in the eastern Townships.

A second case

Outraged by the situation, the girl and her father have decided to call on the services of the lawyer Anne-France Goldwater to defend their right to recover their deer.

“We will fight, regardless of the price to go get our deer. It is a member of our family that we won’t give up, ” added Érika Dubeau Ménard.

She will meet with Me Goldwater tomorrow at his Montreal practice.

The story of Granny is reminiscent of that of May, a deer was adopted by a couple from Wentworth-Nord in the Laurentians, which had been seized by protection officers in November 2016 before it’s returned less than a week later to its owners after several reports in the Newspaper.

For his part, the spokesman of the ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks in Québec (MFFP), Nicolas Bégin, has recognized that a similar situation had already occurred, but that a paper record would be required before the granting of the permit.

“This is not to say that, if a request is made, it will be accepted. An analysis will be made of the case, ” said Dr. Bégin.