Jennifer Sweeney said she is heart broken about what has happened to an animal she’s come to know as a pet.

A wildlife official attempted to kill a young deer known as TinkerBell to Sweeney and others in her neighborhood on County Road 141 in Ironton.

“It was just nightmarish,” Sweeney said. “I haven’t slept for two nights. (At) every dog bark, I get a flashlight. I think it’s her coming back.

“If I would just find her little body. It’s the fear of not knowing.”

Monday afternoon an officer from the Ohio Division of Wildlife came to pick up the animal. When the deer got away from him, the officer fired shots at it, but the deer ran off.

Sweeney says her three young grandchildren were watching when the incident happened.

“They were hollering ‘Tinker! Tinker!,” Sweeney said. “It was inappropriate and I’m going to file a complaint.”

Sweeney said the officer wounded the deer.

“Did he take the time to track it and put it out of its misery?” Sweeney said. “No, he got in his truck and left.”

Doyle Jiles, one of Sweeney’s neighbors, wrote a letter to The Tribune about the incident.

“I don’t think they should kill a deer that there is nothing wrong with,” he wrote. “I always thought our game wardens were here to protect our wildlife.”

But the Division of Wildlife has a different take on the story.

Tom Donnelly, law enforcement supervisor for District 4 of the Ohio Division of Wildlife said the officer was merely enforcing a policy.

“It’s illegal to take wild animals and possess them and you can’t release a deer into the wild,” Donnelly said.

That’s because of an illness called Chronic Wasting Disease, which affects deer, Donnelly said. The disease has been found in both captive and wild deer and can be fatal to herds.

Little is known about what causes the disease and how it’s spread to other deer. The only way to test for the disease requires the animal to be dead.

Donnelly said the officer was doing his job when he shot at the deer. The policy is to make every attempt to kill animals that have been captive, he said.

“We don’t look forward to it but we had to protect the wild herd,” Donnelly said.

As for the shot itself, Donnelly said the official is a trained law enforcement officer and “he took what he felt was a safe shot.”

All of that is little comfort to Sweeney, who said she has been keeping the deer in her yard since the fall, about a month after her neighbors found the animal on the roadway after its mother had apparently been killed.

“Not knowing if she’s dead or alive really hurts me,” she said.

Donnelly said that no one should have wild animals as pets. Studies have shown that young deer are sometimes adopted by other deer when their mothers are killed.

“Bottom line is please don’t pick up what appears to be orphan animals and keep them as pets,” Donnelly said.