A beloved pet deer at a local golf course has died in what some are calling an act of animal cruelty.
Pleasant Valley Golf and County Club in St. Thomas was home to "Bucky" the deer. The deer roamed the golf course and was friendly with golfers.
Sources tell BlackburnNews.com the deer wandered to the New Sarum Public School area last week when it was led back to a garage, strangled with a wire and then hanged.
"We were prepared to lose him to hunting or to the road, but to hear that he passed away in not a correct manner, we were all kind of mad and sad about it," says Assistant Manager at Pleasant Valley Golf and County Club Rebecca Greenlaw. "Unfortunately, he went to a place where there were some cruel men."
Those at the golf course were in the process of re-homing Bucky to a petting zoo.
"Animal cruelty was what happened in the end," Greenlaw tells BlackburnNews.com. "He was being re-homed and he had a home here."
However, a representative of the garage says there was no intentional killing of the deer.
A statement emailed to BlackburnNews.com by Sharon Brubacher reads:
"We are deeply sorry that a "pet" so to speak died. At the time the parties involved were not aware that this was a deer someone had tamed. If the parties involved had known someone local had tamed it that person would have been contacted. A deer was on school property and needed to be removed so the children would be able to leave the property for the day. The OPP and animal control were called and asked the parties involved to contain the animal until they could come out and put it down. In the attempt to contain this animal off of school property out of sight from young children unfortunately it died. Again we are sorry for the unfortunate outcome of this even and saddened that it was someone's pet. In no way was this ever intended to be a malicious act."
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is probing the incident. Officials refused to release details as the investigation is on-going.
Greenlaw says everyone at the golf course will miss Bucky, but they are grateful they got to spend the summer with him.
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