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CLEAR Temp: 27 °F Wind: S at 4 mph Monday, February 10, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 30, 2003 Minion’s need to feed gets her time in jail By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The wild black-tailed deer come from as far away as the forests of Oregon’s Jackson and Klamath counties, drawn by the soft hands and easy meal offered by Thana Minion, the woman known as the Deer Lady of Copco Lake. Minion regularly preens up to 50 deer daily at her Northern California A-frame east of Yreka, where she removes some of those hard-to-reach ticks before offering a meal of high-grade oats and barley as well as a lick on a salt block for dessert. "My deer look great," says Minion, a 52-year-old retired telephone operator. "They’re strong, they’re healthy and their fur looks wonderful." Minion is so convinced that she should play matriarch to these deer that she’s willing to go to jail for it. Again. The diminutive Minion is headed back to a California jail next month in her running battle with California authorities over her feeding of resident and migratory deer despite repeated warnings that she’s openly violating state fish and game statutes. Minion, who served 45 days in jail for a similar violation in 2000, plans to march into the Siskiyou County Jail on Feb. 12 as scheduled to serve a 30- day sentence involving her illegal deer-feeding. She’ll be cheered on by friends whose send-off will include a short protest sporting "Free Thana" bumper stickers. "I’m looking forward to going to jail, in a way," Minion says. "I feel good about myself and I feel good about what I do. I have a right to feed the deer, and I’ll do it the rest of my life." Authorities say she can rub all the buck noses and pick all the ticks off the does she wants. It’s her snubbing of the law and repeated orders from state court to stop feeding deer that continues to frustrate authorities. They consider Minion’s actions a misplaced crusade that causes only trouble for her and the deer. Biologists say that feeding deer disrupts the animals’ regular migratory habits, causes unnatural congregations that set them up for death by disease or predators. They say she is creating a nuisance in her quiet community just over the Oregon border. And they just want Minion to stop loving these deer to death. "I know in her heart she really cares for the deer, but I don’t think she understands the damage she’s doing," says Greg Weston, a deputy district attorney in Siskiyou County who is handling Minion’s case. "I don’t want her to be in jail, but she can’t keep thumbing her nose at the court." Minion, however, believes the intuitive connection she makes with blacktails with names like Floppy, Midget and Mr. Nasty is something people like Weston simply cannot understand. "I see things that normal people don’t get to see, how deer have feelings and how deer are willing to live side-by-side with people," she says. "It’s people who can’t get along with wildlife. And it’s people who can’t get along with people." Interactions between people and wildlife are regulated through the California’s fish and game statutes, which have banned deer-feeding since 1996. The state Legislature enacted the law specifically for cases where feeding causes a perceived harm to the animals, either through disease, predators, neighborhood nuisances by luring in hunters or taming the animals to a point where they rely on the illegal feed. "If (Minion) ever got hit by a bus," Weston says, "you might have a lot of deer there starve to death." Minion began feeding the deer there in 1995 amid her concerns that human intervention in the area has damaged the food balance. But neighbors complained and she quickly ran afoul of authorities after the deer-feeding ban went into effect. In 1997, she was arrested and convicted of driving while suspended and resisting arrest during an altercation with fish and game officers while she was feeding deer. As part of her probation, she was ordered to stop feeding deer. Minion has steadfastly refused, serving her first 40-day stint in jail for violating her probation. She was found in violation again last May and ordered to serve 30 days in jail. After losing a string of challenges to that ruling, her Feb. 12 date with a cell was set. Minion’s challenge is based on her belief that the feeding statute applies to hunters only, and she says she won’t abide by the rule until California voters — not just state game officials writing a statute — pass judgment on whether all deer-feeding should be illegal. "I’d like the citizens of California to have the opportunity to vote on it," says Minion, who says she has spent $27,000 of her retire- ment money to fight her case. "But (fish and game officials) don’t want to do that. They know what the outcome would be — for me." Weston says putting Minion behind bars "will do some good to help get those deer back to their natural patterns," but he would rather she simply stop. "Obviously, this fills a need for her of some kind," Weston says. "It’s not rational. I just don’t know what to do." Weston says he would rather see virtually any other convicted criminal in jail before Minion and would even consider finding a way to keep her out of jail if she stopped feeding the deer. "If you flaunt the law, we don’t have any choice," Weston says. But Minion says she’ll ignore the law until she’s dead or the statute’s dead. "I’m not going to stop and they know it," she says. "I guess that makes me the meanest, nastiest criminal in California — the Copco Lake deer-feeder." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S