Oh Deer! Say It Ain't So!

A man who bolted antlers to the head of a dead doe and posed for a photograph with the deer was fined $400 and jailed for game violations.

Marcel Fournier, 19, shot the deer the evening of November 22 and used lag bolts and epoxy to attach a 10-point rack, officials said. He then checked in the kill as lawful game at Barnie’s Market.

It’s illegal to kill an antlerless deer, and it's also illegal to hunt at night.

The Concord resident admitted to the killing and led a game warden to the deer’s remains after an anonymous caller alerted authorities. Fournier said he had “quite a time” drilling and fastening the antlers, authorities said.

Game warden David Gregory said the antlers didn’t look or feel right.

“When you grabbed them, you’d feel movement,” he said.

Col. David LeCours, chief warden of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the size of the antlers relative to the size of the deer seemed off. “Something wasn’t natural about them, in addition to the fact that they weren't natural,” he said.

Fournier was sentenced to 10 days in jail February 18 for taking a deer in a closed season. He won’t qualify for a state hunting, fishing or trapping license for at least three years.

First of all, let me say how thankful I am that this story did not come out of Alabama! It could have. I was afraid it did when I saw the headline. But, no, thankfully, the story comes out of Vermont!

Yes, Yankees can be rednecks and idiots as well as southerners and Alabamians.

I do find his punishment a waste of time, though. Do you think that a young man who would hunt at night, out of season, and then bolt antlers on a dead doe would care that they have taken his hunting license away from him for at least three years? I don’t think he’ll be very concerned about that punishment, nor will someone like him follow the law anyway.

People can do the dumbest things, can’t we?