A Connecticut man has been arrested for bringing the carcass of a suspected diseased deer back to Connecticut from Pennsylvania.
Reports say that Wayne Simko, age 65, was arrested on charges that he illegally brought the dead buck to his home state of Connecticut from a deer farm in Pennsylvania, a state that has numerous confirmed cases of CWD.
Photo: EnConn Police
The story honestly has too many twists and turns to mention them all here, but what makes things worse is that Simko tried to pass the buck off as a deer he killed in Bridgewater, Connecticut, not on a Pennsylvania deer farm.
It all began in February when the Environmental Conservation Police received an anonymous tip regarding a 24 point buck that was said to have been taken in Bridgewater.
“The buck had a very large non-typical rack and the hide was clear of any blemishes caused by tick bites suggesting that it was not from a wild deer herd in Connecticut,” said EnConn police.
Photo: EnConn Police. Investigations showed the deer hide to be too clean and free from any blemishes from ticks to actually be a wild deer.
“The investigation established that on Nov. 5, 2016, Wayne Simko hunted and harvested a 24-point buck from a captive deer farm in Pennsylvania. Simko did not process the meat for consumption, did not clean the deer as required prior to preparing it for mounting and illegally brought the whole buck back to Connecticut. He then tagged the buck and falsely reported it as being harvested in Bridgewater.”
EnConn police posted, “deer from a confirmed state, such as Pennsylvania, must be properly reported when harvested and must be processed for consumption and cleaned prior to being brought into Connecticut. CWD is contagious in deer and once it is established in the herd it is very difficult to eradicate. As a result of these violations, an arrest warrant was applied for, approved, and served.”
