By: Associated Press//August 21, 2015//
ELKHORN, Wis. (AP) — A southeast Wisconsin woman who owns an animal park has agreed to pay $8,000 in fines and costs to settle state charges of quarantine violations related to farm-raised deer.
Dana Montana of Lake Geneva Animal Gardens was accused of allowing a reindeer named Prancer to leave the 40-acre tourist attraction three years ago. State investigators told her she violated quarantines imposed to manage the spread of chronic wasting disease.
Montana tells the Wisconsin State Journal that she’s never lost a deer or let one leave. She says she wasn’t aware of the quarantine when she donated Prancer to a nearby private sanctuary for lions and tigers, because the 4-year-old reindeer had an untreatable liver disease.
Montana says her business hasn’t faced any other violations in its 12-year history.