Below is a news release issued by the Filipetti family and their attorney on Monday, Oct. 8, 2007:

An open letter to the public and press:

Twenty-five days ago today, two black-tailed deer, Snowball and Bucky, were physically removed from Jim Filipetti’s private property by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Due to his family’s and the public’s immediate expressions of concern on the animals’ behalf, the family quickly obtained a reversal of the Department’s initial threat to euthanize the deer. Very shortly afterwards, the Filipetti family then submitted a reasonable proposal to the Department that outlined in detail the most appropriate resolution to what had rapidly exploded into a topic of overwhelming public interest: just where it was in the best interests of Snowball and Bucky to live.

Since September 13th, the date of the removal, the Filipetti family has been in intense negotiation with the Department over those issues, in particular, challenging the Department’s inexplicable reluctance to have Snowball simply returned to her family home from where she was taken. Throughout, the Department insisted that, to help the parties negotiate productively, neither side publicly discuss details of the negotiations until it could be determined what agreement could be reached. In the spirit of good faith cooperation, the Filipetti family agreed to do so solely to the extent that it helped the Department more quickly reach the right solution, one that respected the needs and welfare of these two special animals, yet also served state wildlife conservation and protection goals, and especially one that remained sensitive to the significant concerns Oregon citizens had been raising as to what had happened.

The time to continue negotiating is now over, and the time to finally solve the problem that the Department created is now up. For two deer whom the Department initially was willing to dispose of quickly without considering a bit of health information about them, it has now spent nearly a month grudgingly releasing piecemeal biological information on the deer while ignoring Snowball’s psychological health, all the while unreasonably declining to come to an agreement. In spite of mounting public and political pressure, in spite of the District Attorney’s official disinclination to prosecute, and in spite of unflinching cooperation by the Filipetti family in acceding to every Department request, including for veterinary records and health information, the Department continues to inexcusably expend remarkable amounts of public funds and unreasonable amounts of manpower and resources primarily hiding the deer from the public while refusing to reach a resolution.

With each day that Snowball is away from the family that she grew up with and with whom she is most familiar, and with each new test conducted on her by the Department, Snowball’s full and complete best interests – in particular her psychological health – is further impaired. With each demand by the Filipetti family for a resolution, no legitimate response is received other than a continuing claim of a need to make further assessments of Snowball’s health conditions, assessments that were apparently uninteresting to the Department 25 days ago and which are certainly extraneous now in light of the information the Department possesses and has possessed for some time.

For that reason, the Filipetti family today has formally demanded that if Snowball is not returned to the family by this Saturday, October 13th, the one-month anniversary of the taking, a formal civil action will be filed against the Department on Monday, October 15th in Clackamas County Circuit Court seeking an immediate ruling by a Circuit Court judge that Snowball’s return to the Filipetti family is in the deer’s best interests. The state judicial system will then be enlisted to assist the Department with completing a decision that it appears it cannot and will not make for itself.

The Filipetti family is and has been enormously appreciative of the overwhelming show of public support to date. They cannot thank people enough for the outpourings of concern so far, and they continue to appreciate any and all moral support, information, resources, or financial assistance that anyone wishes to send their way to help them cope with this extremely challenging and unique situation. What they most need now in particular is the assistance of the public in expressing to the Department the need for a prompt end to the mess it has made, an end that needs to occur before the close of this week and before Snowball’s mental health is any further compromised.

Thank you again for all your support,
Jim Filipetti, Francesca Mantei, and Geordie Duckler