Village Idiot of the Day, December 20, 2009: mitchypoo

While we were collecting quotes on the trainwreck that is the the Canton firefighter lay-offs, we took, a break to read some "non-offensive" articles, like Dillie the deer living in Canal Fulton home, about a domesticated deer (10th generation) that lives with veterinarian Melanie Butera and her husband, Steve Heathman. Who could object to that?

Mitchypoo, that's who!

Here's a collection of 'poo's reading-impaired responses to the article. We begin with:

mitchypoo:
What Vet would feed a Deer Ice Cream, Dog treats or Spaghetti??? and if you read this story in the Massillon Inde online they show a photo of them feeding the deer Sweet-n-low and coffee creamer??? whats up with that? are these people crazy ... what about deer ticks?imagine when it urinates in the house and you thought cat pee was bad....I'm sure the thing craps around the house too, ever seen deer crap... yuck!....this is wrong on every level and they should be ashamed of treating this wild animal like a pet ... give it a few years and the Rep will be back reporting that it went nuts and crashed through the glass patio door and escaped ....

Even when Dr. Mel politely attempted to set him straight,

melbuera
To Mitchypoo: I must correct your misinformation. As it VERY clearly states in the article, Dillie is NOT and never has been a wild deer. She was born on a deer farm in Brewster and has a ten generation pedigree of domestication. The bulk of her diet is hay and grazing, but she likes treats of all types. Her treats are only a very small part of her diet, but the reporters thought this is more fun to show than her eating her hay or grass. Deer have a great capacity to derive energy from all sorts of varied sources, and that is how they make it through the winter in the wild.

Dillie is indeed very housebroken. She is NOT a 'Thing' and she does NOT' crap around the house'. She is very clean and we have had very few problems with her in this regard. Even when all the recent strangers and reporters in the house, she has not had an accident. In fact, she has really loved meeting with them. A phtographer just spent two whole 12 hour days with her, taking thousands of pictures . She did not have one single accident. and as he took shot after shot she just sat passively or tried to lick him. The flash did not make her afraid or make her crash through the patio door.

Dillie receives a monthly preventative for fleas and ticks, just like our dog and cats. I am exposed to many zoonotic diseases every day in my profession and Dillie is not in any way a danger to us.

Dillie has not so much broken a single stifk of furniture. Only an occasional coffee cup that she likes to tip over . She can go inside and out of the house into at will for most of the day and into five acres of woods and lawn that is fenced in.

Dillie is a very special animal that entered our life by pure chance, and has adapted to her life so well that she is really less trouble than any of our other beloved pets.

We are not crazy, we are animal people. To a non animal person, I can never explain how animals become such a part of your life and family and how much joy and love they give you. To an animal person, I find I do not have to even explain this. They just 'get' it.
Melanie Butera, DVM

he continued with:

mitchypoo:
Oh yea I forgot Animals never have accidents in the house .... It's a WILD animal not a dog ... maybe they will get lucky when it goes nuts, unlike that lady who owned the monkey that tore her friends face off!!! ...

mitchypoo
Being a professional I would like the good vet would have had the sense to take the sick animal to a rehab for wild animals where they retrain them and release them back knot the wild ... Being a professional Vet I think one wouldn't keep a WILD animal captive in there house ... If a baby bald eagle falls out of a nest I'm not keeping it as a pet, I'm calling someone .... As a professonal Vet I hope they are not using this poor animal as cute novelty to promote their business or to enter online contests ... Oops sorry, they already did that .... What's next? ... How about nursing a black bear as a pet ? ... Hey they might get on the Today Show with that cute story!!!

mitchypoo
Only in canton ... could you get people all riled up over a Deer ... in New York or California they have to be laughing at us HICKS! .... Ms. Watkins must be related to the old Mayor the way she attacks others on here ... I am thinking about writing a letter to the State to have this deer taken from these cruel college educated people that are holding a beautiful animal captive ... There is nothing humane about keeping this WILD creature in there home, it seems like this vet has a god complex or a mother nature complex .. surely the doctor is using this poor animal for her gain ... I say take the 1,000 bucks you WON and call a proper wildlife rehabilitation center to care for this deer .... Wild animals that are raised around people lose their natural fear of humans. The majority of the wild animal attacks on humans are by deer and other animals that no longer fear humans. .... Being nice to animals doesn't mean that we should treat nature exactly the same as we treat ourselves. It might seem cold in the short run, but if we protected every single animal that would die without us, then we would quickly destroy every ecosystem and create a chain of extinctions that would snowball at an exponential rate until a new balance was found that would be just as cold and delicate as the old balance. Keeping deer as pets based on knee jerk emotions instead of biology are just going to be destructive!! .... If these people are College Educated then they SHOULD know this ...... Just do a google search for people killed by a pet deer ... Deer don't want to be pets!

This isn't the first time we've been accosted by 'poo.

Back on October 20, 2009, we commended 'poo for complaining about the 100th anniversary of Hartung House (former Philomatheon Society for the Blind and now headquarters of the Canton Preservation Society) celebration and exhibiting unmitigated class envy toward elderly Hartung descendants (note, his continued class envy in his designation of Dr. Butera and her husband as "cruel college educated people.") 'poo further believes that everyone who lives in Canton is a "hillbilly." Dr Butera and Mr. Heathman live in Canal Fulton, but we guess that's close enough.

Since we discovered 'poo's Hartung House comments past deadline, he was ineligible for a VIOD award. We make amends now. We are thrilled to bestow the Village Idiot of the Day Award, December 20, 20o9 to Mitchypoo. May he remain always diligent.

BTW, we took up 'poo on his offer and googled stories on pet deer that kill. We found lots of stories about hunters who shoot pet deer, but only one reference to ungrateful home deer who kill their benefactors. That appeared on taxitermy.net. Seems 8 and 9 point bucks can get nasty in rutting season (as we assume does 'poo). Dillie, of course, is a well-behaved doe.

You can read more about Dillie Deer (with links to other sources), Mel Butera, and the Elm Ridge Animal Hopsital in Canal Fulton here.