- May 2, 2024
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The deer Baboo and Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen. Baboo was house trained and loved like a family dog. Photo courtesy of Mike Hansen
The deer Baboo and Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen. Hansen said Baboo was like a dog, even sleeping in the bed with him. Photo courtesy of Mike Hansen
The deer Baboo and Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen. Hansen said he found the deer on the side of the road. Photo courtesy of Mike Hansen
The deer Baboo and Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen. Photo courtesy of Mike Hansen
The deer Baboo and Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen. Photo courtesy of Mike Hansen
When Palm Coast resident Mike Hansen left home at around 9 a.m. for work on Oct. 5, the family deer, Baboo, watched him leave through the kitchen window like normal.
“I would have coffee with him every morning,” Hansen said. “[Baboo] wouldn’t hurt nothing.”
Several hours later, he received a call from Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers and found out that Baboo had been killed after injuring a man who was gardening on Cool Water Court.
Another Cool Water Court resident had called 911 after a deer — Baboo — had attacked the man. FWC officers killed the deer by cutting its throat and later shooting it in the chest. Body camera footage of the incident shows that the injured deer bled from the neck wound for 15 minutes before an FWC officer shot it in the chest. (View the footage, which is graphic, HERE.)
How the state of Florida hasn’t prosecuted that officer for animal cruelty is beyond me. If I’d have done that to a deer, I would have been in jail.”
— MIKE HANSEN
Weeks later, Hansen still has questions: Why did Baboo need to be killed, instead of relocated? If he needed to be killed, why wasn’t it done more humanely? Who gave the order to cut the deer's throat? Are the officers involved going to face any punishment for the way Baboo was killed?
Hansen hasn’t watched the footage yet, he said — family and friends have warned him against it — but he knows that Baboo suffered. The officer who cut Baboo’s throat doesn’t deserve his badge, Hansen said.
“It is the most inhumane thing I’ve ever [heard],” he said. “That’s animal cruelty.”
Hansen said he has sent complaints to the international animal rights organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, commonly known as PETA. He’s also looking to hire a lawyer to review the “barbaric” actions of the FWC and an FCSO deputy who was also at the scene. He’s prepared to take the case on, he said.
The Observer has reached out to FWC by email and phone, but has not received a response in time for this publication.
Hansen said he found Baboo abandoned over a year ago on the side of the road and brought him home. The deer became part of the family — living in the house, sleeping in the bed — and Hansen said he even trained Baboo to go outside to use the bathroom.
“He was just like a dog,” Hansen said. “He loved everybody. … He was never aggressive with anybody.”
Losing Baboo has been rough on the entire family, Hansen said. Many in the neighborhood and around town knew of and loved Baboo, he said.
“How the state of Florida hasn’t prosecuted that officer for animal cruelty is beyond me,” Hansen said. “If I’d have done that to a deer, I would have been in jail.”
A neighbor has even put together a GoFundMe to organize a memorial garden for the deer and donate excess funds to the Wildlife Coalition.
While he waits for answers, Hansen said he is looking for an animal rights lawyer to take the case on. In the meantime, he'll continue to push for answers, he said.
"You're supposed to protect animals as an FWC officer," he said. "[Baboo] was my peace in life."
