You are painting an apocalyptic picture of a massive epizootic outbreak. You may be right about all that, but still I don't understand why a police operation had to be carried out against one fawn while thousands of other deer are massing in the forests?
don’t let that stop you from advocating moving deer from contaminated areas to clean ones
I have mentioned that it is illegal, for a good reason. The shelter shouldn't have tried to break the law. If the illness has a very long incubation period then there is no way to be sure. The simplest solution would be to take the fawn and release it in a nearby forest. If he makes it, good for him. If not, such things happen too.
I want to stress that this is not about a deer. It's all about humans. Humans that had good intentions; perhaps they were wrong. That does not explain why volunteer workers had to be "raided with armed agents, detained." What is the chance that they, or the deer, shoot back? What is the chance that one of those workers runs away? (If he does, so what?) A mighty force of one cop and one vet would be more than sufficient. If that's not enough, the cop has radio. The massive police response to a minor incident is the problem here, not the deer. Most of the article is about humans that were hurt by the police. The conflict has moved past the fawn long ago - it's now between the workers and the LEOs.
Keep reading, see post #100.
That being said, I fully agree that this dreadful necessity was poorly handled.
Do you seriously think it would be more merciful to allow the fawn to starve to death?
They were going to move this deer to a shelter less then a mile away in IL. This spreads disease how?