Heritage
Foundation Video Couple
Faces Jail Time for Saving Baby Deer’s
Life By Daniel Dew January 30, 2013
An
Indiana couple is facing up to 60 days in
jail and $2,000 in fines for saving a deer from death. Jeff Counceller,
a police
officer, and his wife Jennifer spotted an injured baby deer on their
neighbor’s
porch. Instead of turning a blind eye to the dying fawn, the
Councellers took
the deer in and nursed it back to health.
They
kept the deer, Little Orphan Dani, in
their backyard as it recovered. Everything was fine until an Indiana
Conservation Officer spotted Little Orphan Dani in the Councellers’
yard. The
Councellers were charged with unlawful possession of a deer, a
misdemeanor
offense.
The
day that Little Orphan Dani was to be
euthanized by the Conservation Agency, the deer inexplicably escaped
into the
wild. Although Little Orphan Dani was able to get away, the Councellers
may not
be so lucky.
Historically,
crimes have two elements: (1)
actus reus (bad act), and (2) mens rea (bad intent).
Most
people would agree that nursing an animal
back to health is not a “bad act” in the sense of being morally
blameworthy.
Keeping the deer is deemed to be a “bad act” only because the
legislature has
said it is prohibited. Do we as a society want to punish acts that are
not
inherently wrong with criminal penalties?
Was
there a bad intent? Is intending to save an
animal bad? Most people would say it is not. Jeff Counceller is a
police
officer. It is highly doubtful that he intended to flout the law. It is
much
more likely that he simply didn’t know that his conduct was prohibited,
much
less a criminal act. If an officer of the law does not know that his
conduct is
illegal, how can others expect to know it?
If
the act itself is not bad, and the
Councellers did not know that their action was illegal, what could
society
possibly gain by having people like the Councellers serve time in
prison and
get a criminal record?
Should
you think that this is solely a problem
in Indiana, you would be very much mistaken. Sadly, this is not an
isolated
incident. Others have been prosecuted for their efforts to help animals
in
need.
In
an eerily similar case, 11-year-old Skylar
Capo and her mother, who live in Virginia, were threatened with
criminal
charges and up to one year in prison for nursing a woodpecker back to
health.
In the Capos’ case, it was the federal government going after the
do-gooders
for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Luckily for the Capos, the
story
gained national attention and the prosecution was dropped.
Robert
Eldridge, a commercial fisherman from
Massachusetts, was prosecuted for whale harassment by federal
authorities under
the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, an
offense
punishable by up to one year in prison, for freeing a humpback whale
from a
fishing net.
What
lesson do laws such as these teach? If you
see an animal in distress, leave it to die? People inherently want to
help
people and animals that are in need. Sadly, overbroad laws such as
these can
turn good Samaritans into criminals.
Read
the article and see the video at Heritage
Foundation
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