Vernon buck too friendly as mating season approaches

B.C. conservation officers are trying to locate a deernearVernonthat walked onto a school playground and got one of its antlers caught in a child's backpack yesterday.

Vernon School District Superintendent Joe Rogers says the buck has a growing reputation in the Coldstream area of being friendlytoo friendly at times and officials are now worried it may become aggressive with the start of the mating season.

"In the summer the deer was actually coming up and pushing one of my neighbours from behind," said Rogers.

• Mother bear, two cubs shot dead in Okanagan

A spokesperson for the B.C.Conservation Service saidthey will try and tranquilize the deer, but thedecision on what to do with the deer would then come down from the B.C. Wildlife Branch.

Marnie Cuthill, the Vernon coordinator for WildSafeBC said the deer appears to have been tamed at a young age by someone,and she believes it will eventually have to be killed.

"There isn't a rehabilitation facility that has any vacancies that would be able to take on a tame deer. There aren't any options, it's a safety risk."

"If it at all becomes aggressive it could definitely do some serious injury and that's unacceptable with small children or any people in the neighborhood," Cuthill said.

WildSafeBC is a new provincial program developed by the B.C. Conservation Foundation to reduce human and wildlife conflict.