AR-News: (MD - US) Couple says DNR plans to kill Bucky the deer this afternoon!!!

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Thursday February 19, 2004
Couple says DNR plans to kill Bucky
by BRIAN SHAPPELL


shappell at herald-mail.com 


The 30-hour period between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday night contained a full circle of emotions that ended on a sour note for the Hagerstown-area couple who have been caring for a young deer since Sunday. 


Kevin and Starla Hall believed early Wednesday that the slightly injured deer, which they named Bucky, was going to be nursed back to health at a state facility and released. They now say authorities plan to kill the deer by this afternoon. 


Meanwhile, Bucky continued to lay on the Hall's Antietam Drive porch behaving more calmly than many household pets and most wild animals. 


Kevin Hall said he was told by Cpl. John Milbourne, regional investigator for the Maryland Natural Resources Police, that the animal would be taken into custody and destroyed this afternoon if it was still at the home. 


Milbourne declined to comment on the issue while at the Hall home and asked them to speak with him without a reporter present. Later Wednesday evening, Milbourne again declined to comment and said information on the case would be released exclusively through Department of Natural Resources Public Information Officer Heather Lynch. 


Lynch could not be reached through her pager and cellular phone late Wednesday evening.