Red deer draws stares along Androscoggin

LIVERMORE – Is it an elk? Is it a caribou?

The animal that many residents are seeing along the Androscoggin River is actually a red deer – the type that is found at deer farms, not in the wild in Maine.

Red deer are domestic animals raised for meat, medicinal products or pets. But several people have spotted one of the animals roaming the wild the past few weeks in northern Androscoggin County.

Shelley Doak, director of the Division of Animal Health of the state Department of Agriculture, was able to identify the animal after she saw a picture of it Thursday.

David Labbe, who owns deer farms in Greene and West Peru, said the animal likely escaped from a deer farm in the area. There are 97 deer and elk farms licensed in the state.

Labbe said he isn’t missing any of his animals, but he recently received a call from an animal control officer asking if one of his animals had escaped.

He said the deer shouldn’t pose any threat to the white-tailed deer that live in Maine.

“It cannot crossbreed with any of our deer,” he said.

The deer, with its 12-point antler rack, started drawing stares a couple of weeks ago when people spotted it in Livermore, Turner and other places.

Red deer, after all, are herd animals. It’s not often people see them outside of fenced-in areas, and residents wondered if it were an elk, or perhaps a caribou.

He said it’s unusual for a red deer to run off, but that during the breeding season in the fall it may have been forced away by a dominant bull.

He said the animal could probably survive on its own because it has antlers to defend itself, but it could also be tranquilized and taken back to its owner.