LITTLE ROCK – (Scroll down for video) — Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are investigating a video circulated on Facebook showing a deer being beaten with a textbook. The investigation began after AGFC officers were contacted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on Thursday.
Further investigation by AGFC officers revealed that the video was made in Arkansas by three Georgia males and one female from Arkansas. One of the males has been interviewed by AGFC officers. The officers plan to contact the other three individuals to get statements within the next 24-48 hours.
The individual seen beating the deer could be charged with a misdemeanor, fined up to $1,000 and receive up to a year in jail under Arkansas’s criminal animal cruelty law. He also could be charged with an AGFC violation of wanton waste of the deer and fined up to $2,500.
WARNING: Video is disturbing
The other three people could be facing criminal violations of aiding and abetting in the incident. Those violations carry a fine of $250.
Col. Todd Callaway, AGFC Chief of Enforcement, said he was disgusted by what he saw in the video. “We take these things very seriously. Arkansas has a long history of ethical hunters and this flies in the face of our hunting traditions,” Callaway said.
