MAHNOMEN – A Moorhead man has been charged with animal cruelty and chasing a wild animal in a motor vehicle in the Labor Day weekend drowning death of a buck on a northwest Minnesota lake.
The two misdemeanor charges were filed Tuesday in Mahnomen County District Court.
Steven William Timm, 55, is accused of using a pontoon to circle the big buck and prevent it from getting to shore on Tulaby Lake about 40 miles northwest of Detroit Lakes.
Timm was charged by summons, and a hearing was scheduled for Oct. 29.
He did not return a phone message.
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According to court records, several witnesses said Timm harassed the deer until it drowned of exhaustion.
Timm told the DNR he wasn’t trying to hurt the deer, but was trying to turn the deer back to shore.
One witness, David Kvidt, told DNR investigator Angela Warren that he noticed the buck swimming in the lake the Sunday morning of Sept. 6 a few hundred yards from shore.
A man in a white pontoon was fishing near his dock. The man in the pontoon headed towards the deer, and drove his pontoon between the deer and the shore, Kvidt said.
The frightened deer started swimming farther out into the lake.
The pontoon at one point circled around the deer, preventing it from heading towards the public landing.
Kvidt said it looked like the pontoon sped up and was following behind the deer. He said he has never seen a deer swim that fast before.
Kvidt jumped into his pontoon and went out to try to get the pontoon driver to stop, but when he got out there, the deer was floating belly up.
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He asked Timm why he was between the deer and the shore.
Timm told him he was trying to see what it was, adding “what do you think I am, a deer killer?”
Kvidt said they were both angry, and to avoid any trouble he went back to his residence.
For his part, Timm told the DNR investigator he had been fishing in the pontoon when he noticed something swimming and drove the pontoon out to see what it was.
When he got near the deer it began swimming farther out in the lake.
He said he drove between the deer and shore while trying to get around the front of it to turn it back to shore using his pontoon.
He said he stayed 50 yards away from the deer, and wasn’t trying to hurt it.
He confirmed that another boater confronted him about the deer and was angry.
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Another witness, Ken Bauman, who also lives on the lake, said the pontoon driver appeared to harass the deer to its death.
His wife, child, and grandkids were also present and witnessed the incident.
Baumann told the DNR investigator that he saw something swimming quite a ways out in the lake, and he wasn’t sure what it was until he looked at it through binoculars.
The deer was swimming towards shore, and appeared to be swimming fine.
The deer, as it got closer to a pontoon, turned and swam towards the public access.
The man in the pontoon then started his pontoon and drove alongside the deer.
He drove between the deer and shore, then drove in front of the deer, which caused it to swim out into the lake.
Shortly after that, the deer drowned.
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The interaction between the pontoon and deer lasted approximately 5 minutes, maybe longer, he said.
The Minnesota DNR investigated the incident, which occurred on the Mahnomen County side of Tulaby Lake.
Each misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
