From rescue to courtroom: Lawrence woman faces charges for keeping a deer
The State of New Jersey has pursued legal action against a farm owner for housing a deer in her barn.
When an orphaned fawn wandered onto Cammy Lowe’s farm in Lawrenceville, New Jersey in 2019, she quickly took him in, fed him, and devoted herself to keeping him warm and safe — and, in the process, became the only mom the deer ever knew.
Now, more than six years later, she’s battling over the deer against an unforeseen enemy: the State of New Jersey.
Lowe, who owns TLC Country Stables in Lawrenceville, has been fighting over the deer she named Rudolph (or Rudy for short) for the past year.
She kept Rudy in a barn on her 30-acre farm on Van Kirk Road until last summer, when a New Jersey Fish and Wildlife conservation officer came knocking on her door with a long list of charges.
Lowe removed the deer from her property for fear that he would be euthanized, but state officials still went after her.
The peculiar case is going to court. A hearing was delayed again on Wednesday after the state’s key witness failed to show up for municipal court — a mix-up that Deputy Attorney General Matthew Knoblauch blamed on the court.
“I was instructed by court staff that the conservation police officer did not need to appear,” Knoblauch, who appeared on behalf of the wildlife agency, said during the virtual hearing. “If we do need him, I apologize; that isn’t my error.”
Lowe’s attorney, John Hartmann, quickly moved to dismiss the case, which Judge Lewis Korngut said includes charges of possessing a potentially dangerous animal without a permit; interfering with the duties of a conservation officer, and making an alteration to vertebrate wildlife without a permit.
“It’s the state’s burden. They produced no witnesses. They said they’re not calling a witness,” Hartmann told the court. “I’m looking for a dismissal.”
Korngut acknowledged the request but said he couldn’t do it since the court had given Knoblauch the wrong information.
“I don’t believe it would be appropriate for me to dismiss this,” he said before scheduling another court date where the officer could testify.
Later that day, Hartmann told The Jersey Vindicator the state had offered Lowe a plea deal: pay a $100 fine, give up the deer, and close the case.
But that was a no-go as a matter of principle, he said.
“First of all, she doesn’t know where the deer is,” Hartmann said. “And second of all, we’re not going to give the deer up because they’re just trying to kill it. We’re not gonna’ rat. Rescuers don’t rat.”
The court has yet to schedule a follow-up date, Hartmann said. But Wednesday’s proceedings mean there’s no end in sight for the case.
A fawn finds a farm
Back in 2019, the fawn wandered onto Lowe’s farm. She decided to investigate and found the baby’s dead mother in the woods. She called the Mercer County Wildlife Center, but workers there said the county wouldn’t come pick up her new furry friend. Instead, they told her to put the deer back where it was and “let nature take its course.”
Lowe knew the fawn would die if she did that, so she brought him back to her barn and started feeding him every three hours, day and night, for the next two months until he could eat regular food.
The pair bonded deeply, and Rudy became just another part of her farm family, which already included horses, sheep, pigs, goats, and an alpaca.
More than five years after the impromptu adoption, someone contacted the state about the deer, and Wildlife Conservation Police Officer Andrew Riviello appeared at her door last July.
Riviello said authorities would have to confiscate her companion. So Lowe registered Rudy as an emotional support animal, then applied to the state for permission to keep him.
The state denied her application, however, because deer can’t be kept as pets in New Jersey. They’re listed as a potentially dangerous species because they’re prone to contracting chronic wasting disease, a fatal and incurable neurological illness that doesn’t harm people or livestock but spreads quickly among herds of deer, elk, moose, and mule deer.
Authorities also said in their denial of her application that Lowe had acquired Rudy illegally, never specified why she wanted to keep him, and didn’t provide enough information about whom she had gotten him from originally.
“No permit will be granted for any captive game animal without appropriate documentation that the captive animal was acquired legally from a licensed breeder,” the state’s letter read.
“Your application states that the baby deer came out of the woods and walked right up to you before bringing it home with you, proving the deer was not legally acquired,” it continued. “The animal must be surrendered to New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officers.”
But Lowe said last year the castrated, docile deer couldn’t live in the wild because he lived in her barn his entire life and was too timid to explore the outdoors on his own.
“He is used to being in the barn where he feels secure,” she said at the time. “Even just transporting him, he will be scared to death. Every veterinarian I’ve talked to … says the same thing, that it’s cruel to the animal to take it away from the only mother it has ever known.”
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Steve Janoski is a multi-award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Post, USA Today, the Associated Press, The Bergen Record and the Asbury Park Press. His reporting has exposed corruption, government malfeasance and police misconduct