Without a good set of binocs, it’s hard to decipher if the two deer spotted by Fayette County deputies were in fact albino or just plain old white deer. The fact is, we’ll never really know because either way you slice it, these deer are not to be hunted – at least legally.
Following the spotting, the Sheriff’s Office took to Facebook to post the photos of the two peculiar deer. As expected, the photos garnered a fair bit of attention on the social network at which point, the poster issued a reminder that these deer are not to be hunted.
For reasons no one seems to be completely familiar with, Iowa law dictates that any deer with more than 50% white coloring cannot be legally hunted. The protection was made legal back in 1987 but the only ‘sound’ reasoning behind the legislation seems to be an apparent uproar of discontent after a hunter killed a white deer the previous year.
While kowtowing to Karen is nothing new these days, I was sufficiently surprised to hear that a piece of legislation like this got passed in such a whitetail-heavy state as Iowa. Deer are extremely common throughout the state and the Department of Natural Resources has gone on record to say that neither protecting white deer or removing them provides any benefit to the population across the state.
Meaning, if we shoot them, they’re fine. And if we don’t, they’re also fine.
And this makes sense, well, because science. Albinism is a genetic disorder that doesn’t allow cells to produce melanin – the pigment needed to color skin, eyes, scale and hair. In the rare cases of albinism, two parents must carry the recessive gene and pass it along to their offspring.
Otherwise, no albinos.
The occurrence of albinism is so incredibly rare because of the aforementioned requirements that hunting has no bearing as to whether or not we’d ever see one again. All we need is those two recessive genes to come together in some serendipitous way and we’ll be sharing similar pictures anywhere between 9 and 20 months later.
Now, I’m not here to advocate for the annihilation of albino deer (and their piebald counterparts).
I am of the opinion that they deserve the same protection as afforded to other deer. A deer is a deer and whether a hunter chooses to pull the trigger or not (during legal season, of course) should rest upon the opinion of the hunter. Not outside influence.
In a world where equality is everything, let’s level the playing field and allow the hunting of all colors of deer in Iowa.
