Youth Bags Rare Albino Deer

An 11-year-old southeast Michigan hunter has gained celebrity status after bagging a 12-point deer with a crossbow. It wasn’t just any trophy buck, but a rare albino.

Gavin Dingman of Osceola Township bagged the trophy buck last week on a hunting trip with his father, Mick Dingman, who says hunting shows and magazines are clamoring to interview the young hunter, WZZM and WLIX report

“He kind of feels like a rock star right now,” Mick Dingman told WZZM.

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• Do you think albino deer should be protected? Thanks in advance for your civility.

The Dingmans have seen the buck on a few occasions over the past two years and have snapped some photos.”The whole neighborhood is familiar with it,” Mick Dingman said. “Quite a few of the guys in the neighborhood were trying to get it.”

Gavin told WZZM he was nervous as he raised his bow and found the quarry in his sights. He was standing about 30 yards away

“My dad was just like, ‘Take a deep breath. Are you sure you can take the shot? If you’re not 100 percent, we don’t want to injure it,’ “ he said.

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Not everyone is happy about the Hartland Consolidated Schools sixth-grader’s accomplishment, though hunting albino deer is legal in Michigan.

Michigan-Out-of-Doors TV posted a photo of Gavin and his albino trophy buck on its Facebook page, and said it had deleted more than 100 followers because of negative comments.

Here’s one exchange after Ella Dingman, Gavin’s grandmother, posted the following comment:

“To all the negative people out there: There was people all around the area who was watching this Albino buck, and as much as I agree he was a beautiful buck and it hurt to see him shot with a bow rather than a camera, I’m happy it was my 11-year-old grandson that got it!”

“Regardless of what color the buck is, the fact that people are carelessly killing these beautiful creatures for sport and not necessity is the problem here,” replied Nathan Hagen. “Yeah yeah, I know you eat your kill but the fact remains in the natural world killing animals is totally unnecessary for more reasons than just morality. That is why you are receiving negative feedback and probably more so because you seemed to have taken a particularly extensive amount of pride in the fact of this being a rare animal. It’s the glorified heartlessness that others have difficulty understanding and rightfully so.”

“Do you realize what would happen if hunters didn’t control the animal population?” replied Kerri Fountain. “Too many deer means they will run out of resources and die of malnutrition. They will start looking outside of the woods and cause car accidents. Hitting a deer is no joke. You will most likely kill it and have major damage to your car. Not to mention venison is extremely good for you. Enjoy your GMOs and Frankenfood from the store.”

A taxidermist is doing a full-body mount of the deer, which was about 3½ years old.

“It’s too rare and too pretty not to spend the extra money and have the whole thing done,” Mick Dingman said.

Jordan Browne of Michigan Out-of-Doors TV, which airs on Public Broadcasting Stations across Michigan and nearby states, told WLIX that he’s surprised the deer wasn’t bagged sooner.

“A vast majority of bucks harvested in Michigan are only 1 1/2 years old which makes the fact that this buck was able to survive that long while being so noticeable even more impressive.”

John Bates, a Wisconsin naturalist and co-author of “White Deer: Ghosts of the Forest,” thinks albino deer should be protected. He said they’re born once in every 20,000 births, though some biologists think they’re even more rare, occurring once in every 100,000 births.

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Photo: Michigan Out-of-Doors TV Facebook page