A 10 point buck was seen last November 22nd at Bernie’s Market in Concord Vermont. The deer wasn’t running around or anything, it was actually being checked in by 19 year old Concord resident, Marcel Fournier. Fournier who shot the buck was getting it checked in at the market and even posed with the deer for photos wasn’t telling the complete truth about the deer. Someone thought that something didn’t seem quite right with the deer and became suspicious, that is when the authorities were alerted. In the meantime Fournier became worried about being caught so he disposed of the deer.
Vermont game warden David Gregory began to investigate, eventually Mr. Fournier admitted to him that he faked the set of antlers and led him to the evidence. It was then that the game warden noticed that the deer wasn’t quite the right size for the set of antlers on it’s head. He began to check further and noticed that the antlers didn’t quite feel right either, they seemed to move a little when they were tugged on. Mr. Fournier admitted to other violations of shooting deer at night along with the fake antlers. He used epoxy and lag bolts to fasten a set of 10 point antlers to the doe’s head.
For his actions along with his bad taxidermy work, on Feb. 18th Marcel Fournier was fined$400 for illegally taking a deer and sentenced to 10 days in jail along with losing hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for at least three years. I wonder if the days in jail were for each point he tried to pass off on the set of antlers? Before he can regain the use of his hunting license, he must take a hunter’s safety course and pass it. Maybe next time he will perfect his taxidermy skills before trying to pass a doe off as a buck.
Game warden Gregory told the News Tribune and the Burlington Free Press that this was the first documented case of “add-on antlers” in the state of Vermont. This is a tale that folk lore stories are made of, but this set is for real, well sort of!
