HERRIMAN, Utah (KSTU) — A "friendly" deer is creating a lot of buzz in Utah's Herriman community.

“He liked hanging out with the kids," said Angelica Lujan. "He was playing on the hill with them."

The deer, which residents named "Cooper," has been seen in pictures videos online.

Lujan said she was amazed by the deer’s calm demeanor.

“When he first started coming around, some of the neighbors had talked about not being too friendly with him so he doesn’t get used to us, but it’s a little bit past that,” said Lujan.

Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources said despite the deer's gentle and friendly attitude, people should leave him alone.

"People don’t realize these beautiful, cute deer can be aggressive as they get older. We’ve had times in the past where these friendly deer, they do get aggressive," said Scott Root, conservation outreach manager of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "We’ve had kids hurt at bus stops. Bad things happen when we feed deer in a residential area."

Root says if the deer becomes too much of a regular in the neighborhood, they may have to euthanize him.

“We choose not to relocate because of disease considerations. If this deer stays in the community, it could get hit by a car,” said Root.
Root hopes people will leave the deer alone so it can return to its natural habitat.

“We hoping people don’t befriend it and it goes up in the foothills but if people do see it, leave it alone. Everyone loves that picture for Facebook or Instagram but you’re really doing that animal a disservice and maybe giving it a death sentence if it becomes too domesticated,” said Root.

This story was originally reported by Eliana Sheriff on fox13now.com.

MISSOULA, Mont. — For generations, hunters have used lead ammo, but a new group is trying to spread the word about lead-free ammo to help protect the environment and wildlife from lead poisoning.

Sporting Lead-Free, a Wyoming hunting group, wants to prove the value of switching ammo and tackle to local sportsmen and women. The group hopes to reduce lead consumed inadvertently by people and wildlife and show the positives of choosing tackle and ammo that doesn’t poison the environment.

“The more I’m out interacting with the animals in their habitat and appreciating that I have the opportunity, the more I care about the animals,” said Kai Whitehill, a hunter who uses lead-free ammo. “The more I understand the animals, the more I want to protect the habitat, and the more I‘m willing to give of my time and energy and resources to make sure that habitat is always there. There’s an after effect where any lead still at the kill site is basically going to be consumed from other animals that come by.”

According to studies and demonstrations by the Sporting Lead-Free, lead ammo can fragment into hundreds of pieces when it hits a target, which could lead to lead in meat.

It also causes scavenging birds to consume gut piles, leading to lead poisoning.

According to the American Bird Conservancy, an estimated 10 to 20 million birds and other animals die each year from lead poisoning.

“People don’t realize when that lead bullet hits that animal, it fragments into several hundred pieces,” said Hannah Leonard with Sporting Lead-Free. “Depending on the bullet some fragment less some fragment a lot more. The fragments might be the size of a tip of a pen. There’s about 160 fragments in a gut pile and for an eagle, it only takes that tiny amount to kill it so it’s mind boggling.”

Leanard travels to different states to demonstrate the difference between the use of lead and copper ammo.

Some of their programs include X-raying packaged meat to help get the lead out of wild game meals and demonstrating the advantages of new, non-lead ammunition.

According to Brian Bedrosian, the director and co-founder of the group, the group has X-rayed about 1,200 packages of wild game meat and found lead fragments in about 15% of the ground meat packages.

“It’s pretty much impossible to keep lead fragments out of meat of harvested animals,” Bedrosian said. “But it’s very deadly to scavenging birds that consume gut piles. As for humans, if exposure is low the metal rarely causes severe issues. However, it’s better to have fragment free meat in general for your family.”

The group feels it’s a better approach to educate outdoor enthusiasts than seeking legislation outlawing the use of lead ammo.

“We are 100% behind a voluntary educational approach,” Bedrosian said. “We have no interest in going down any kind of regulatory or legislative route.”

BATON ROUGE, La. —

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries personnel removed a deer from Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge Monday afternoon after it entered the hospital and made it to the second floor.

According to LDWF officials, the deer had to be euthanized after sustaining traumatic injuries before entering the hospital. Officials believe the deer had been hit by a vehicle near the Essen Lane hospital.

LDWF officials anesthetized the animal before removing it and taking it to LDWF headquarters in Baton Rouge, but after an examination by LDWF State Veterinarian Dr. Jim LaCour revealed the traumatic injuries, the deer was euthanized.

“The deer was apparently injured in traffic,” LaCour said. “Hospital officials did a great job of subduing the animal then getting in touch with us."

OKLAHOMA CITY —

With rifle deer season just around the corner, wildlife experts want hunters to be aware that animals can carry COVID-19.

But there are ways hunters can protect themselves in the midst of the pandemic while in the great outdoors.

“It’s turning out that a lot of wildlife and domestic animals are able to be a carrier for COVID-19,” said Dwayne Elmore, a wildlife extension specialist with Oklahoma State University.

>>Related: OKC Zoo administers animal-approved COVID-19 vaccine to select species

Elmore said recent research suggests deer can carry COVID-19 and transmit it to humans.

“That is not really that surprising because other coronaviruses have worked that way in the past,” he said. “People don’t need to be really, overly alarmed about this because we’ve already known that it’s in dogs and cats and ferrets, primates and a lot of other animals. This is just one more that we’ve added to the list.”

Elmore said people shouldn’t be concerned in the short term. But, he said, “It’s going to be even less likely that we’re ever able to be rid of this disease because it’s going to be harbored in so many other animals.”

So if you’re deer hunting this season, be mindful of where you’re handling the animal.

“The likely way you're going to come in contact is if an animal or human is respiring in your presence. So an animal that's been harvested, you know, that's not happening. Obviously, there's still a potential that you could come in contact with the virus, like on your hands, if you put your hand around the mouth of the deer and then you touched your face. So that's an easy one to avoid. Just wear gloves when you're handling wild game. We should do that anyway,” he said.

“The risk to a hunter or someone from harvesting an animal is extremely low. And when you cook the meat, most of the viruses are in the respiratory tract,” but cooking the animal kills the virus.

Bottom line: “If people are worried about it, get vaccinated,” he said.