BIG PINE KEY, Fla. – A convicted felon from Big Pine Key is facing criminal charges after authorities said he lured multiple endangered Key deer into his home by feeding them — and posted photos and videos of it all online.
Officials arrested Thomas Geatal Scancarelli, 61, on Tuesday and booked him into the Monroe County jail on misdemeanor charges of taking an endangered species and feeding a Key deer by hand. State records show he’s been on probation for multiple felony drug convictions since the summer of 2023.
According to an arrest warrant, in January, a member of the public sent an online tip to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission urging officers to check out Scancarelli’s Facebook page, saying that he was “(a)llowing and luring Key deer into his house and tormenting and feeding them while inside the house.”
Authorities began investigating soon after, the warrant states, and found 16 videos of Scancarelli with Key deer both in and out of his house; they show him feeding the endangered ruminants apples, avocados, oranges and cheese slices.
In one Facebook post, on Jan. 3, Scancarelli talks about “training female deer to perform tricks,” the warrant states. The attached video shows Scancarelli feeding the deer an orange slice.
“I walked this little sweetheart into the crib to perform stupid animal tricks,” officials said he wrote in part. “And Princess didn’t disappoint.”
A Jan. 10 post, captioned “feeling amused,” shows two deer in his residence on Coral Way, authorities said.
“On tonight’s episode of ‘Oh Deer’. The kids were mis- behaving as always. There’s a deer in the garage, one in my bedroom, one by the sofa, Jesus, I’m just trying to find the bottle of Titos, and I’m dealing with this furry s--- show,” the post reads, according to the warrant.
A Jan. 12 video, in which Scancarelli proclaims himself to be a possible “deer whisper(er),” shows him feeding a deer inside his home, the warrant states.
“It’s watching Fox News with me now,” authorities said he posted. “Can’t make this s--- up.”
Additionally, the warrant states a November video showed him feeding chickens in a Winn-Dixie parking lot and saying, “I am sure all this s--- is illegal, f--- em.”
While Scancarelli allegedly posted that it was “pretty cool” to have the deer “as friends,” FWC investigators said in the warrant that feeding the endangered animals is quite harmful and illegal.
“Scancarelli has caused significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering,” the investigator wrote.
The FWC states on its website that feeding the deer is harmful primarily because it “lessens fear of humans.”
“Key deer can be found foraging in yards and on roadsides, where they approach people and slow-moving vehicles for handouts,” the agency says. “Getting hit by vehicles is now the primary cause of Key deer mortality. Illegal feeding also causes a concentration of Key deer populations, facilitating the spread of parasites and disease.”
According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office records, he remained held in the Key West jail facility on a $32,000 bond as of Thursday afternoon.