INFANT KEY DEER HAS NEW HOME AT KEYS SHERIFF'S ANIMAL FARM

This Green Scene story spotlights an environmentally focused attraction, event, person or place that enriches the Florida Keys

KEY WEST, Florida Keys -- An infant Key deer, recovering from injuries sustained when it was hit by a car, is now the newest resident at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm, situated at the county’s detention center just outside Key West.

The tiny deer, named Tina, is about 10 weeks old and was accidentally struck on Big Pine Key in mid-June. Along with other relatively minor injuries, the animal sustained a broken leg and was taken to the Marathon Veterinary Hospital for treatment. Late Monday, the cast was removed and the animal was deemed in excellent health.

But the diminutive 10-pound fawn cannot be released into the wild.

"She’s considered non-releasable, due to the fact she was bottle-fed and now imprinted on humans," said the farm director, Jeanne Selander, who worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get permission for the animal to live at the farm. "It wouldn’t be a good idea to put her back into the wild."

Adult Key deer are about the size of a large dog, with an average weight of 65 to 90 pounds. Indigenous to the lower Florida Keys, they are the smallest subspecies of the North American white-tailed deer.

A portion of the National Key Deer Refuge encompasses much of Big Pine Key. The refuge was established in 1957 after hunters almost gunned down the species to extinction. The Key deer population has increased from about 50 animals back then to a current herd of about 700.

Tina is now one of about 300 domestic and exotic animals either abandoned, confiscated or donated that have found refuge at the farm. They are cared for and loved by a contingent of the detention center’s trustees who are screened and classified as being “safe” to work outside the detention center and interact with the public.

The Sheriff’s Animal Farm is open to the public without charge, from 1 to 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. The farm’s next public opening is this Sunday.