CHITTENANGO, NEW YORK –Cindy McGinley understands the circle of life and death quite well. A former president and current trustee of the Henge of Keltria, her belief that all life is sacred includes a recognition that all life also must eventually end. It’s her love of animal life that led her to obtain a license to rehabilitate wildlife from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, a role which has sometimes required her to end the life of a creature which could not be restored to health.
Nevertheless, she now finds herself in a battle to save the lives of two does that she has been caring for at Rivendell Farm & Sanctuary, a 12-acre property she maintains mostly as a base of operations for her horse-centered life coaching practice. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has effectively condemned the deer, named Deirdre and Lily, to death. According to the DEC’s assessment, McGinley overstepped the bounds of her license by keeping them. That decision was made in response to McGinley’s application for a new license specifically to keep the two animals for educational purposes, because she believes that they cannot be released into the wild.
Deirdre, now five years old, was the first deer McGinley rehabilitated, according to a story in the Legislative Gazette. She was found as a fawn by the body of her mother, who had been killed by a car. Several boys discovered her and brought the newborn home. They contacted McGinley when they learned that keeping deer without a license is illegal in the state.
Despite her training on how to avoid having the young animal imprint upon her, McGinley said it simply wasn’t possible given the intense ministrations needed to save Deirdre’s life. Moreover, as she later mused in a blog post, their meeting seemed foreordained by a shamanic journey that she had taken earlier that year:
And, quick as a flash, as my heart went out to the little creature, the realization dawned that this fawn was sent to me by Morning Glory, and was perhaps even the physical manifestation of the spirit fawn with which I had touched noses in the Spirit World. I did not know if the plan was to send her to me even as I met her in the Spirit World. I only knew that with the arrival of this fawn, Spirit was at work in my life once again. Our connection was instant and powerful. From the moment we locked eyes, I became Deirdre’s mother and she, my child.
Regardless of this connection, McGinley regularly evaluated Deirdre to determine if she was ready to be released, something she dutifully reported to the DEC in the mandated annual log of her work the year she saved the animal. The doe, having lost its mother after only one or two days, never acquired any of the skills needed to survive in the wild. McGinley told The Wild Hunt that she kept trying, but life circumstances intruded. She said:
In the wild, doe fawns stay with their mothers until they are at least 2 years old. When Deirdre was just 2 years old, I sustained a mild head injury, a concussion, that really threw me for a loop. I had to take a semester away from grad school because the post-concussive syndrome was so bad, and I’ve only recently achieved a full recovery, after physical and occupational therapy. So the paperwork for Deirdre slipped through the cracks. I did have hope, too, that last summer she might be ready for what we call ‘soft release’ — that is, a gradual return to the wild where she would still receive support, shelter and food until she was entirely able to fend for herself. (Incidentally, that was not an option offered by the DEC for her.)
Lily and Deirdre the deer
Although Deirdre had imprinted upon McGinley, this is not typical in her rehabilitation work; other fawns don’t bond with their human host simply because the doe is present, allowing them to be released. Even as McGinley was recovering from her own injury, another fawn was brought to her farm, a doe who would come to be called Lily. Unlike Deirdre, she did have the chops for life on the outside, but Lily had problems of her own, as McGinley chronicled.
I had the vet come out and she recognized a thiamine (B1) deficiency. If fawns (and goat kids, incidentally) have a drastic change of diet, thiamine production in the stomach ceases, and that can cause brain swelling and blindness. Of course, losing her mother had created a drastic change of diet! We started her on (unfortunately, painful) B1 injections, and after the first 2 days, she would not let me near her to give her anymore of that! But the vitamin did the trick, because she was strong and aware enough now to run away from me. Unlike Deirdre, Lily had had the care of her mother for 3 months and the education of a wild fawn, so she was quite wary of humans, and the painful injections did nothing to endear us to her. Lily was a candidate for release when she was stronger.
Unfortunately, though she is now quite healthy and happily follows Deirdre around, Lily never regained her eyesight.
With two deer on her hands which she could not release, McGinley set about to apply for the special license needed to legally keep them on her farm. Six weeks later, she received a rejection letter that included strict orders on what to do. Lily should have been euthanized right away, she was informed. McGinley could either do so herself or turn the blind doe over to DEC officials to end her life. Those two options were also presented for Deirdre, along with a third one: lock her out and stop providing food and water. This was a far cry from the “soft release” for which McGinley had hoped.
That notice came in June, and McGinley has worked to save Deirdre and Lily ever since. She agrees with the law preventing people from keeping deer as pets. However, she thinks there should be some avenue to appeal decisions, and consider gray areas. “There is no reason why these two does should not be allowed to live safely where they are, so I was shocked when the [license] was denied out of hand, sight unseen, with no cogent reason given as to why they denied my application,” she said.
An attorney was hired, and she took her case to the people. Perhaps it was divine intervention, but her online petition went viral and now has over 205,000 signatures, of which she says at least 12,000 are from New York residents. When there was just over 130,000 signatures, she delivered the petition via a disc to Governor Andrew Cuomo. She got no response. She then brought printed copies of all 200,000+ names to his office in the state capital of Albany. ” An aide met us in the waiting area of the executive chambers, listened politely to my plea, and took the very heavy box with the 3000+ double-sided pages of printed petition back to the office. She promised a response from the Governor, but I have to say, I am not holding my breath.”
The outpouring of support for the deer included shout-outs by actor Ian Harding, who tweeted about their plight and prominently featured them in his Instagram account and on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/IANMHARDING/status/620638492893167616/photo/1
On the legal front, the execution has been stayed while the DEC presents its case to a judge, and McGinley’s attorney has indicated he is hopeful some kind of deal can be reached. “I have directly spent $8500 to lawyers already, and I’ve raised maybe $5300 in donations to the legal fund,” McGinley said. “The cost will be directly proportional to how long the DEC continues to treat 2 rescued does in rural central NY like they are Public Enemy Number One. I’m certainly not going away.” She is due back in court on September 8, so the animals have at least that much of a reprieve.
Most of the money raised was through Indiegogo campaigns, but supporters are also invited to buy a t-shirt to support the effort. According to longstanding legal precedent, wild animals are owned by the state, a philosophy so entrenched it is not likely to even be challenged in this case. The best hope is to convince the DEC that McGinley’s keeping these animals is neither irresponsible nor dangerous.
Supporters gathered in Albany [Courtesy Photo]
The Wild Hunt reached out to DEC officials for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply. Other media outlets to which department officials have responded suggest no room for compromise. The role of a wildlife rehabilitator is to treat and release, period. If that’s not possible, mercy killing is all that remains in the eyes of the law. However, McGinley remains committed to the cause. Asked if she had considered what she might do if the court battle is lost and the deer condemned to either an extremely short life in the wild or an intentional execution, she replied simply, “I can’t imagine that happening.”
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Here’s hoping DEC sees the grey and gives her the license she needs.
I wonder though, has any consideration been given that Lilly would likley as not have died in anycase? Her blindness makes it highly unlikely that she would have survived in the wild, despite her three months advantage over Deidre. While I am not unsympathetic to McGinley’s plight and support the survival of the other fawn, Deidre, it seems somewhat meddlesome to continue to delay the natural course of things; its not a question of can Lilly be saved and kept by McGinley but rather should Lilly be saved and kept by McGinley.
The other doe is different because of the extenuating circumstances around her rehabilitation which have led to her being essentially, domesticated. In that scenario by all means, fight for what you feel is right whether that be caring for it yourself or passing it to a sanctuary or a zoo (the latter two being common choices in Australia) but it seems to me that in the case of Lilly, the course of action seems to be pretty clear (although the Department in question could stand to modulate its demeanour more to reflect the nature of the situation).
Lily was not born blind. She developed blindness because of her nutritional deficiency when she lost her mother’s milk. We did not know she would remain blind; such is the nature of that particular deficiency. She rebounded and is otherwise healthy. My veterinarian and I had reason to hope that her eyesight might return, and then she would be quite releasable. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and after a few months that was clear. Still, by then she was well-adjusted to where she lives and I see no reason to take her life when she can just remain here happily. She is no expense to anyone but me, and no danger to other animals or people. Why would we kill her?
I apologise, I must have missed some of the finer details in my initial reading and thats probably reflected in my original comment.
The issue for me is that while you clearly know what you are doing, while you clearly have a reputation for knowing very well how to do what it is you do, not every one does. Given that the fawns were with the remains of their respective mothers when found, the situation at that time was very obvious and I’ll not criticise the saving of the fawns – however, the circumstances surrounding a young animal on its own are not always not clear cut and as I understand it there is an almost yearly increase in the number of problems caused by people interacting with animals unwisely and without understanding the reality of the situation. Lupa wrote an article which provides a number of links to various examples of what I am talking about (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pathsthroughtheforests/2015/07/28/our-deadly-lack-of-nature-literacy/?ref_widget=gr_trending&ref_blog=grails&ref_post=pagan).
Honestly, there is no good reason to kill Lilly, none what so ever – particularly given light of the situation however there is a wider impact that results from the actions of those who know better which often ends in the ignorant only making the problem worse. You can’t be held acountable for the actions of the next person who finds a fawn on its own, a person who is just your Avergae Robin Smith, and decides to save the animal but much like the young children I teach, such well intentioned people will try and copy your actions only to cause more problems, often without realising it.
Oh, I completely agree. There are more problems caused by people who mean well but are doing the wrong thing with wildlife because they don’t know any better. Part of my job as a rehabilitator is educating the public, and sometimes that’s done one phone call at a time. I got a call just this spring about a fawn seemingly “abandoned” in someone’s back yard. I told him the mother was likely nearby, so please don’t disturb the fawn and if it is still there in 24 hours, to call me again. He didn’t (because of course the mother came to pick it up eventually). People call me about baby rabbits all the time. I ask, do they have hair, are their eyes open, can they hop? Yes. Well, they are probably old enough to be on their own then. Put them back where you found them.
I was denied a License to Possess for Educational Purposes, a license that has been regularly given to rehabilitators in the state of NY when animals prove to be non-releasable. And I was denied it with my facility unseen and with no consideration for the situation, just because my paperwork asking for such for Deirdre was neglected. In other words, I was denied a license to keep them long-term and told to kill them because of some paperwork that should have been filed sooner. I was also told I was not entitled to a hearing from the DEC on the matter, nor do I have any way to appeal the decision within the agency. Yet I feel that decision was arbitrary and capricious, and that’s why I am taking a stand, appealing to the public, and why I have filed the Article 78 proceeding. No healthy, well-adjusted deer, even one with a disability, deserves to die over paperwork.
Ah! I do feel I should apologise – I’m not myself from North America and I got the sense from the article that the lisence in quesiton was somehow unusual or a special case measure of some description, I didn’t realise that it was something regularly handed out in these kinds of cases.
It seems a poor way for the DEC to conduct itself if the bone of contention is some paperwork, on that we are decidedly in agreement. You are justified in feeling it was arbitrary, doubly so in feeling it is capricious, particularly given how there would seem to be processes for solving these kinds of matters when the circumstances arise. Given that you suffered a major head injury you would think there’d be some kind of clemency.
Thank you.
Have you considered starting a petition at Care2 or another animal welfare site?
I certainly have been inundated with requests for signing over Cecil T. Lion, who was trophy hunted illegally, and I don’t care to go into how his remains were found.
The fact that you had a major head injury should be taken into account for what seems to be arbitrary enforcement over timeliness of paperwork!
The existing Care2 petition had well over 205,000 signatures when this article was written; the link to it is included in the paragraph discussing it.
Cindy – Wishing the best of possible outcomes with this bizarre situation. The local wildlife are lucky to have you – let’s hope DEC see that and understand the deer should remain as they are.
It’s lovely that you’ve come so well through some very trying times. Wishing you all good things!
While I don’t doubt good intentions here, it’s insulting that people are expending this much energy over two particular members of a densely overpopulated species.
Maybe, but it certainly is a beautiful counter-point to the story of the idiot who shot the famous lion Cecil in Africa.