Worst Christmas story ever

Opinion: December 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By John Kass

Chicago Tribune

The worst Christmas story ever takes place in Wisconsin, starring Charlotte, the deer who thinks she’s a horse.

She runs with the horses. She teases them and tries to get them to chase her. She jumps one way, front legs stiff, tail up, then cuts the other way, taunting.

We met the other day, at a little farm in Lake Geneva, with rescued horses in a field. Charlotte looked at me for a long while.

Then she trotted over. She nibbled my jacket. She nuzzled my arm.

Now the state of Wisconsin wants to kill her, right before Christmas. There’s a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. And the Walworth County district attorney’s office is threatening the man who rescued her, Marvin Graaf, 49, with up to eight months in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

Graaf’s ex-wife Madeline named the fawn.

“I guess she liked ‘Charlotte’s Web,”’ Graaf told me. “We’ve been saying if we changed Charlotte’s name to Rudolph and put a red nose on her, it would be harder for the state to kill her. But I don’t know what will stop them. They’ll put me in jail and kill her, for what, to prove they can do it?”

Mother dies

Some 15 months ago, a mother deer and her fawn were hit by a car. The mother was killed. Charlotte, the fawn, had been dragged under the car. Her ear was torn, but otherwise, she was OK.

Someone came and hauled the mother’s body away. But Charlotte just stayed near the spot on the road and wouldn’t leave. A neighbor knew that Graaf had rescued other critters, from horses to a litter of raccoons, and even nursed an injured red-tailed hawk.

“I was called by a neighbor, who hoped we could save her life. Charlotte just stood there for four days, waiting to die. There are coyotes around,” he said. “I didn’t want her to be eaten by coyotes, so we took her in. It was just going to be for a couple days.”

She wouldn’t eat. She was dying. But Graaf had a German shepherd who’d just delivered a litter, and Graaf tried enticing Charlotte with powdered puppy formula. They fed her the milk from a bottle. The fawn thrived.

He tried to place the deer with rescue shelters. But none could take her, per regulations. The state’s deer population is threatened by an outbreak of chronic wasting disease, and mixing of herds increases the risk of infection.

Charlotte seems quite healthy now, but she does come from a CWD zone. She can easily come and go and hop the short fence around the pasture, but no shelter can take her.

If Graaf chases her away for good, she’d probably walk right up to a hunter. Or the coyotes might jump her. Or some farm dogs that sometimes run in packs at night would chase her down.

Graaf and I talked standing out behind the barn, Charlotte’s eyes on us, and the barn cats and horses watching. Every few minutes or so, Charlotte would wander up to him and put her nose against his elbow and push.

“We didn’t want to keep her. I used to be a hunter. I’m not against hunting. And I think wild creatures should be with their own kind,” said Graaf. “I don’t think anybody should keep any wild animals. I wouldn’t go looking to bring her home and keep her, but here’s the thing.

“I can’t stand to see any animal suffer. ... I’m just between a rock and a hard place here.”

In August, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sent officers to Graaf’s home to kill Charlotte. Graaf refused to turn her over to the state. Walworth County prosecutors charged Graaf with “unauthorized taking of deer from wild.” The DNR then sent him a letter stating that no one may possess any wild animal.

‘Habituated’

The letter also states that since Charlotte has become “habituated” — meaning that she’s now used to people — she can’t be released into the wild. The letter from the DNR to Graaf was two pages long and full of bloodless bureaucratic language. And one sentence was the most bloodless of all:

We’d like to coordinate with you on the surrender of the deer under your care to Department staff so that it may be humanely euthanized.

Humanely euthanized? That means they want to kill her. Humanely, of course.

Now, I’m a meat eater. I’m also a hunter. My hunting dogs have tracked creatures and I’ve shot those creatures running on the ground and out of the air. I eat what I kill. I’m not against hunting, and I’m not for breaking the rules. I believe, as does Graaf, that wild creatures belong in the wild, with their own kind.

But sometimes common sense is in order. By being on a farm, she threatens only bureaucratic prerogative. So killing her would be cruel and unfair.

And if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Walworth County Judge Robert J. Kennedy and District Attorney Phillip Koss truly want her dead, then it should be done by their own hand. But I doubt they’d do it. And since they won’t do it themselves, what is fair is to leave Charlotte be.

She could live on Graaf’s little farm with her friends the horses, chasing them, running in the pasture, safe for Christmas.

Editor’s note: After this column ran in the Chicago Tribune, the public outcry inspired Gov. Scott Walker to issue a “pardon” for Charlotte. Efforts are being made to locate a refuge where she will be able to live out her days.

Distributed by MCT Information Services