B.C. woman allowed to keep deer as pet
Ucluelet resident Janet Schwartz will be allowed to keep Bimbo
CBC News
Posted: Jan 18, 2013 5:07 PM PT
Last Updated: Jan 18, 2013 8:05 PM PT
Bimbo the black-tailed deer shares some food with her human housemate in Ucluelet, B.C. (Submitted by Janet Schwartz)
A Vancouver Island woman will be able to keep living with the deer she has raised from a fawn as a pet, B.C.'s environment minister has decided.
Minister Terry Lake says the province will permit Janet Schwartz and the animal named Bimbo to continue living together, with the help of a veterinarian and conservation officers.
The decision comes after conservation officers told the longtime Ucluelet, B.C., resident they would be seizing the deer and moving it to a wildlife rehabilitation centre.
"As a veterinarian, I am very aware of the bonding that takes place between people and their pets," said Lake.
"I am confident that by working with the provincial veterinarian and trained conservation officer staff, Ms. Schwartz will be able to follow a plan of care that will see her and Bimbo continue to live together."
He said ministry experts are highly concerned about the habituation of the animal and understand there are risks associated with removing an animal that has become accustomed to a home setting.
Schwartz has lived with the creature for more than 10 years, feeding it goat's milk and allowing it to sleep in a bed with her and her dog.
Schwartz and Bimbo first made the news in 2009, when officials with the B.C. Ministry of Environment ordered her to set the deer free or take it to a rehabilitation centre, saying wild animals should not be kept as pets.
Schwartz said conservation officer backed off after the story hit the news, but recently turned up at her door with new papers, demanding she turn the deer over, once again.
Complicating matters is the news that Bimbo is one-month pregnant and has cravings for chocolate cookies, she says.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
Latest British Columbia News Headlines
- New West parkade a blight on revitalized waterfront
- There's a growing movement in New Westminster, B.C., to tear down a parkade that stretches across the city's waterfront. more »
- 750 homes sliding away in Quesnel, B.C.
- Officials in Quesnel, B.C., are trying to save 750 homes and an elementary school from shifting, as an ancient landslide causes land in the area to gradually slip every year. more »
- Mounties hunt for sex assault suspect in Port Alberni
- Mounties in Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, are looking for a suspect after a 16-year-old girl reported being sexually assaulted. more »
- B.C. teen saves pet dog in 'terrifying' cougar attack
- A teenager who says he heard a horrible "scream" from his beloved black labrador outside the family home in Belcarra, B.C., looked out his window and then went into action to save the dog from a vicious cougar. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- U.K. attack suspects were focus of past security probes
- WARNING: This story contains graphic content. Two men accused of butchering a British soldier had featured in previous investigations by security services, a British official said, as investigators tried to determine whether the men were part of a wider radical Islamic plot. more »
- Neil Macdonald: Harper no Obama when it comes to dealing with scandals
- Beset by three so-called scandals at the moment, Barack Obama has been meeting his accusers and the press head on, Neil Macdonald writes. The same cannot be said for how Stephen Harper operates. more »
- Needed: New approaches to defuse 'suicide contagion' among teens
- Mental health experts say we need to find new ways to refer to and discuss suicide, particularly now that a large medical study has confirmed that teens are more susceptible to the idea if they know a schoolmate who died that way. more »
- Man in chained-teen case pleads guilty to sex assault, kidnapping
- A man accused of chaining up a teenager and sexually assaulting him last fall at a home in rural Nova Scotia has pleaded guilty to some of the charges against him. more »
- B.C. teen's heroics save pet dog in 'terrifying' cougar attack
- Plumber's car explodes near Vancouver apartments
- Man stabbed in Vancouver
- Adrian Dix to stay on as B.C. NDP leader despite election loss
- 2 men found in Kalamalka Lake near Vernon, B.C.
- End solitary confinement, says former female inmate
- Greyhound bus caught going twice the speed limit in B.C.
- Wait time and primary care reforms stalled
- Former B.C. MLA Harold Long killed in plane crash
