I would contact the proper authorities. As much as losing a prize like that would be a downer it wouldn’t be as big a problem as the issues you could face down the road if you just took it home. If you planned ahead at all you probably have a camera and that should get you something to hang on your wall.
The owner may see fit to reward you for doing the right thing and let you keep it. You can’t go wrong doing what’s right.

If you shoot an escapee on the lam, you have two choices, call the CO and report the tag, or remove the ear tag and put your transport tag on it. the problem comes when you try to check the deer in, I have yet to find a check instation that has no hunters standing around. So the news of the monster is going to be out, if its that big of a rack they'll be three deep around the truck taking photos and sending them to their friends. Do the right thing call the CO

npaul sad it!

All "wild" deer in Texas, including escapees, are considered property of the State. This means that as long as I have the proper tags, I have legally harvested this monster. I would notify the proper authorities and the deer's previous owner (if possible) in order to maintain a good relationship with my neighbors. However, I would not give up the trophy.

As a general rule you report tagged animals, geese, ducks, fish, deer... to the appropriate conservation department. If you live and hunt in an area that does not have game farms within 50 miles, you have a strong argument for keeping the deer after you report the tag.

When I took the shot I had no way of knowing that it was an ear-tagged deer. At that point it is a legally harvested deer. I am obligated by law to tag my legally harvested deer. I am also presented with the opportunity to notify the local fish and game warden of the ear tag that my deer has. What he does with the information is up to him but in the eyes of the law and common sense the deer is mine,legally harvested and legally tagged. The rack would definately become a real conversation piece but I would let it be known that it was probably a game-farm freak and if I mounted the head I would request that the ear tag remain attached. I DO NOT see any ethical obligation to attempt to return the deer to the game farm but IF they were to contact me requesting the ear tag it would be their property and I would willingly give it back.

I'd not be able to live with myself unless I tagged the deer and reported it to the proper authorities. To share the memories of the hunt with others not knowing whether or not I'd done the right thing, would place a negative (maybe a guilty) feeling on the successful hunt when one is not deserved. If losing the rack happens I'd still have the memories and could share them proudly.

Its commen sense to call the authorities and let them decide whether you get to keep it or not.

it's common sense that if I legally harvest the animal I don't have to ask ANYONE's "permission" to keep it and am under NO OBLIGATION to notify them. Legally harvested,legally tagged..Legally mine. There is NO ethics issue here at all except MAYBE the issue of returning the tag from the ear to the game farm..IF I know how to contact them even.

In Minnesota all free roaming animals are legal. But if the animal has an hear tag, either from an animal farm or DNR research, I believe it is required to report the number on the tag to the authorities and you are still able to keep your animal. So, legally and ethically, I would call the authorities, report the number on the tag and do what is advised. It could save a lot of legal hassles in the future.

As hunters, our ethics are one of the most important things we have in our love for hunting. If you do the right things, good things usually happen as a result. If you legally shoot an animal, then in my state you are required by law to tag the animal before moving and transporting it. Your next phone call should be to your local warden and then you'll have to see where it goes from there. In my opinion if you legally harvested the animal, it should be yours and you can make a strong case to keep it. Above all, have morals, have character, have integrity; they will not fail you in life.

as a hunter, you have to do the ethical thing, unlike those redneck idiots that display their kill on the hood of their truck, or go out and kill everything they see. you have to do the right thing and call the dept. of fish and wildlife and contact the owner. hopefully you will be repaid by your honesty and he will let you keep the meat and rack. in all thats all you can really hopefor, unless you want to be an jackass, not report it, and get caught later on in your life for killing an farm raised animal. so i say contact the authorities and owner.

The value of the farmed deer in Michigan is in the thousands. I don't know the legal implications but I would notify the owner and let them decide what the disposition would be. Venison is plentiful in Mi
and bragging rights depends on ones ethics

I would definitely notify someone, be it the DNR or the game farm owner. I really don't know what the laws are but it seems to be the right and ethical thing to do.

stay with your gut feeling do the right thing and something good will always come out it it.

go report it to the authorities. the rack would be nice but for me the best thing about hunting is the hunt itself and nobody can take that away from me.

Call the local game warden. I suspect you will have to use your tag on it, depending on the state laws whee you are at the time. In all probability, since it was legally taken (no "reasonable man" will expect a hunter to check for ear tags before shooting a deer), you will not be in any trouble unless you try to hide the facts in this case. That said, I think it's also the correct ethical choice. The warden should be able to identify the owner and help figure out what to do from there.. It may be a tricky situation legally, but not so difficult ethically.

i inform game and fish and the owner... but the game is mine! its not the fault of the hunter !!!

I would inform the DEC (Departmaent of Environmental Conservation) and explain what I found after harvesting the deer. Let the Law do the investigating, Either one fo two things will happen, 1. the deer would be confiscated by the DEC for investigation and the possibility of a new tag issued (never know). 2.You keep the deer and the DEC takes the tag for their investigation. Be ethical things do happen in this crazy world.

How are you to judge wether it is wild or an escapee?

You have seconds to shhot. Tag it and if suspect it is an escapee report the kill. How would the deer farm recover this lost deer alive or evan find it! Where is the common sense in this matter!

I would go ahead and report it to the game and fish department. Then ask them whats the best thing to do.

tag it and call the authorities. I doubt the farm would want it back as they concidered it lost when it got away

I would tag it and call the Game Com. about the ear tag issue . They may want to speak to the owner about the containment , or lack of issue , but the deer was shot legally and thus is mine .

As a Wildlife Biology Student we've learned time and time again that it's proper to turn in this information. The hot topic right now in the world of white tail is CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease). It's a disease that was first found in a deer farm and is spread through close captivity of white tails and other related animals like Elk etc. So the whole loosing the rack is not an issue to me, the health of an entire heard being contaminated by deer getting loose from a farm is. Turn it in, call your local biologists.

I would call the fish and game and tell them I shot this buck. Give them all info required and wait for them to show up. The animal belongs to them in my view. I think thats the sportsman thing to do. Just my view.

Call the Game anf Fish Dept. So it can be reported to the proper people as this animal should be tested for CWD. Let them sort it out in a legal and ethical manner.

I have not had this happen to me personally, nor do I know of any one else who has had this happen to them. In Arizona, where I live, our white tail deer are on the small side, so a monster buck, free roaming, deer farmed, or otherwise would be a shoot em and see attitude. If it is indeed a tagged animal, then I would report it to Game and Fish and see what happens. This also has peaked my interest to see if there are any deer farms in the areas I plan on hunting this fall, and if so, find out "BEFORE" I go out what the steps are to take if this situation occurs. Forewarned is better than "just winging it".

I'd have to tag it by law. Then I would report it to the owners and game commission. The owner might do the right thing and let you keep it or maybe at least get a set of replica resin antlers. If you don't report it then some day you might get caught with it and have no proof that it escaped or where you shot it and be accused of poaching a trophy from the farm.

i would get permission from the owner first then I would hunt it .

For one, I hunt with a retired warden, so he'd set me straight. And two our Wisconsin law reads "You must validate your carcass tag immeidiately upon killing................." That pretty well says it all right there.

I fig that it is fair game i would tag and check the deer then call proper authorities to let them know that deer had been taken

I would take it home and hide it in the shed! Skin it and do all the dirty work. THen I would take it to the taxidermist and have it mounted! JUST KIDDING!!

By no means would I! THis must be reported to the CO and Owner. It might as well be his dog! I would hope that he would honor the fact that he got out and he was fair game! Or at least give up last seasons shed to go with the hide for a nice mount! 100% Turn it in!

If the buck got out on his own he's fair game. If I shot it I would tag it and keep it. I've got no way of knowing it a pinned raised deer. I'd check into the tag to see who owned it and contact them though. I read a story of this happening in ohio, a lady shot a brute in her back yard, and after she shot it the owner got word and showed up, nothing he could do about it she shot it and tagged it legaly on her own properlty.

I would tag the critter, then call the game warden...playing by the rules is the best way to go...a lot less trouble down the road.

Definately tag the animal as it was legally taken. But also report the tag to the DNR. There are fines for an animal getting out. I would not be responsible for returning the animal to the owner, only the tag if requested.

In Alberta By law you would have to tag it to legally transport and like any tagged animal or bird submit the tag to Fish and Wildlife. And most likely you have removed a CWD candidate from the resident herd.

Once discovered that the Bruiser Buck possibly escaseped from a Game Farm, I would definatelt report it. If the tables were turned and it was my escaped buck, I would certainly hope an Ethical Hunter would do the same.

It is great to see so many honest people out there. It makes me feel proud to be an honest hunter and would do the same thing that most people said they would do. I also would report the deer to the proper authorities and hope for the best but expect the worst. Honesty is the best policy, and who knows. Being honest might just put a huge mount on your wall that you can brag about , and also feel good because you did the right thing. Be honest.

Interesting legal argument. When cattle escape from a pasture, the cattle rancher maintains legal ownership as long as the cattle are tagged (branded). The rancher also becomes responsible for damage to crops, fence, etc… of the area where the cattle roamed (at least this is the case where I grew up). The difference being cattle are not a hunted game animal. While hunting for any game animal, I will not shoot at cattle and will report the cattle sighting to either the rancher directly (if I know who it is) or the DOW.
If I take a game animal in fair chase where I have the legal privilege to hunt, I am obliged to tag it with my tag and report the kill to DOW along with any information I have, in this case an ear tag (brand). Now let the cards fall where they may. I would like to believe if the deer and/or rack are ‘returned’ to the rancher; I would be compensated either with a new tag to continue hunting, or some sort of “replacement” value of my tag. (But then I am an optimist.)
When ranch animals were easily identified as ‘property’ and game animals were easily identified as ‘fair chase’ animals, things were much easier. But ethics and morality have not changed, report the animal to DOW.

Tag it, drag it, then notify the proper authorities and let them decide what next to do.

Ethics are extremely important to me personally, as they should be to each and every hunter. You must always report a harvest in New York. If a monster wandered onto my property in season, I would report both the harvest and the ear tag to the proper authorities, but I would not feel obligated to return a rack that was taken on my property. Of course, I would be open to discuss the issue with the original owner.

I would keep it as it is legally harvested. There are no legal deer farms in my province so the animal would have to have traveled over 100 mies.

The only logical thing would be to do what is right, report the deer. Like previous posters have mentioned, doing so will help keep the fencelines honest and gain you some respect with fellow hunters and landowners in the area. It might not even hurt to call the game warden before you move the deer, just in case there ever was anything arise with the deer farm owner saying you poached it from his property. You are going to get lots of attention, best play your cards right and cover your tracks, let them see where the shot took place.

First i would tag my kill as law says you must. Then DNR would be contacted. It is my understanding you may have done the owner a great favor. It is possible he could be faceing fines and a lot of headaches for the escape. Hopefully he would allow me to keep antlers and meat if not , so be it, do the right thing and teach your children and grandchildren to follow by example.

In Minnesota , if a deer escapes from a deer farm it has to be dystroyed and tested for CWD regardless if it is re-captured by the owner. I would contact the owner, but the trophy would be mine! I recently had a similarincident with a couple of escaped Bison. If your interested I put pictures and a short story in the forum under the Big Game Hunting section. Although I contacted the owner of the buffalo BEFORE I hunted them.

Spottedcrow: You say "It might as well be his dog!" Not hardly. He's raising that brute for someone to come in and pay big dollars ta kill it. Something he wouldn't do with his dog.................. I don't think?

I'm from Wyoming and this is my take on the question. First of all if I harvested the animal I'm most certainly going to tag it and take it home. But, I would also report and present the animal to the state game and fish so that they would be aware that someones "farm raised" deer has escaped. In Wyoming we don't allow game farms so any such animal would have to have escaped from one of our neighboring states and crossed the border. It is very unlikely that it would be an isolated case or only one animal, so the WGFD needs to be made aware of the potential problem. And fat chance that owner is going to reclaim his prize animal.

in NH it would be like texas, an escape is "wild" i would call a CO asap and have them inspect the kill site to document it was havested in a legal manner, really no difference than shooting an escaped "ferral hog" i would just want to make sure there was an official document saying it was shot in observance of the law, so no one could say i stole it, if infact it was reported missing after the harvest and check in,

also if the "real" value was in genetics and breeding the now dead buck would have no use to the farm other than horns, and who would want a mount of a buck they or their forfathers didnt shoot?

Take pictures with the camera an phone, then contact the proper officials and hope that the owner has some understanding. As long as they have the proof and data of what their efforts are creating then they really have no use for the rack or the animal so I don't see an issue that the owner would have with you keeping the rack. If they do im sure the the two parties could come to an agreement on producing a replica of the rack for their clientele or potential clients to view to boast their efforts.

Ethics would win out here, doing the right thing has its own rewards regardless of what the farm does with it. I have passed on dear before just beacause they are few yards on the wrong side of a fence for which I have no permission to hunt on.

I would report it to the DNR officer and contact the owner. This is good relation and to prove I am a responible whitetail hunter

I personally would contact the game and fish department (or the equivalent agency in the particular state I'm hunting), the land owner, as well as tracking down the owner of the animal.

jfp The only ethical thing to do is to report the ear-tagged deer to the local DNR officials. You would really have no way to know where the deer came from unless there was a well known game farm nearby. Hopefully you could work out an agreement with all parties involved beneficial to all concerned.

I would tag it and then report it to the game Department and let the card fall as they may because if I dident tag It that would be Poching

I would report it to the game department and the and notify the owner. This animal belongs to the owner even though it escaped the game farm.

I would tag it as the law states, then immediately take it to the authorities. One of the major things about any hunting is ETHICS . Those who don't demonstrate them, whether anyone else is there or not, just continue to add fuel to the anti's arguments.

When I took the shot I had no way of knowing that it was an ear-tagged deer. At that point it is a legally harvested deer. I am obligated by law to tag my legally harvested deer. I am also presented with the opportunity to notify the local fish and game warden of the ear tag that my deer has. What he does with the information is up to him but in the eyes of the law and common sense the deer is mine,legally harvested and legally tagged. The rack would definately become a real conversation piece but I would let it be known that it was probably a game-farm freak and if I mounted the head I would request that the ear tag remain attached. I DO NOT see any ethical obligation to attempt to return the deer to the game farm but IF they were to contact me requesting the ear tag it would be their property and I would willingly give it back. As far as I know there are no deer farms here in Arkansas. At least not around me within 100 miles

I first cut the bucks neck then I would read the tag and call the phone number on the tag if I could not read the phone number I would call Fish and Game tell them that I shoot a buck with a tag on it's ear and read what on the tag. If the Fish and Game said tag it I would tag the buck. Then I dress the the buck. Then do what the Fish and Game told me to do.

I would field dress it, tag it, and contact a CO. There are a lot of different arguments that could be used here as many states have different laws. I would let the CO figure out how to interpret those laws for me. Technically if it has a tag/brand it is considered property. In some areas of SD they still have open range laws on the books, Which means if you Killed someones cow/horse/property you yourself are responsible for the killing of the animal and must pay the owner restitution for the value of the animal. So yes I would let the CO do the work for me and pray that the outcome would be beneficial for all parties involved.

I would contact the owner if possible and let them know what happened, but i would not give up the animal. Once it leaves their land it is no longer their property, it is a wild animal free for anyone to harvest, if they are not capable of securing the animal on their property, it is their loss!

I would definatley report the deer and even try to contact the farm as well. I would definatly apologize and make sure the deer went to them since they do treat the deer on farms like pets. I know from many conversations that some deer farmers allow the deer in their home and treat them like many treat dogs and cats. I could not imagine what someone would go through with the work and effort as well as money to raise a monster buck to have it get lose and killed.

One thing to remember is to be able to live with your decision and not regret. I would contact Game And Fish Department and let them know where the animal was killed and how.Also to let them know of the ear tag. Take pictures of the animal for identification purposes.Even though the law in my home state and where I live now,the Law says that any animal in the woods that there is an open season on and you have the proper license for is legal game unless otherwise stated so in your Hunting Season Handbook.By doing what is right,I can live with the end results even if the Deer Farm Was to be able to recover the animal from me. jsaucier1

If I were to make that shoot on that deer and found that tag I would contact the rightfull owner of that deer. Just because it got off there property does not make it a wild animal If your dog got out of your house with your tag around its neck and someone else found it doesnt give that person the right to keep that dog does it you would want your dog returned to you. Now since we are talking about a deer with a tag I would contact the propery owner and the owner of that deer and tell them what happend and if they want the antlers back they can, but explain to them I would like to keep the meat becaue I am a hunter first and formost not a trophy hunter I hunt for meat for feed my family the antlers would be nice for the wall but they cant feed anyone

If I shot that deer I would definetly contact the authorities and let them do what they see fit. That is the right thing to do.

I say the deer is fair game , I would check it in and let showing off begin.

I would tag the deer report the ear tag and keep the tropy. As soon as the buck left the high fence it became fair game. Then I`d mount the monster and show it off.

I would contact the game farm if i knew where to find them. If not i would contact the game wardens and see what they could find out about the animal.

Apparently MDIGGS liked and agreed with my response to the scenario...His response is MY response VERBATIM with the exception of the very last line !!! Good Luck MDIGGS..Hope ya' win !!! LOL LOL !!