Indiana Couple Faces Jail Charge For Nursing Deer

An Indiana couple who rescued a deer in 2010 never realized that they would have to pay heavily for nursing the near-dead animal. The couple is now facing jail for violating the rules of the State Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Jeff and Jennifer Counceller had discovered the injured fawn curled up on a neighbor's front porch with maggot-infested wounds. The small animal, which couldn't walk at that time, wouldn't have been alive if it was not picked by this Connersville couple. They got the animal to their 17-acre farm where they nursed it and brought it back to sound health.

Jeff Counceller, a police officer, along with his wife Jennifer, has been charged with illegal possession of a white deer, an offence that leads to 60 days imprisonment and a fine of $500.

"I was going to put her back in the woods, but I seen (sic) the injuries and I knew they were life threatening," Counceller told WTHR. So he and wife Jennifer nursed the deer, which they named "Dani", back to health and built a pen for the animal in their backyard near the woods until the deer grew stronger, WTHR reported.

The couple said in their defence that they approached several deer habitats across the state but found they were too full at the time.

The wrong charges against the couple created an online buzz, where thousands demand the charges to be dropped against the husband and wife.  According to New York Daily News, a petition on Change.org received 11,000 names on Tuesday, while a Facebook page was flooded with up to 13,000 "likes."

Last year when the couple had contacted the DNR, they were asked to get a rescue permit to make it legal.

"She basically just told me that I was in illegal possession of the deer and that they would not give me a rescue permit," Jennifer was quoted as saying in iDigitaltimes.

DNR considered the deer as a threat and planned on euthanizing the animal, but it escaped.

Jennifer continued saying, sometimes, it's not always about the DNR laws. "Sometimes it's about common sense and what's right in God's eyes. And that's what I'm going to stand for."

The case will go for a jury trial next month.