Cape Girardeau hunter ponders where to display white deer mount

When Jerry Kinnaman asked his taxidermist, Danny Wahl, if he would mount an albino buck, Wahl agreed but didn't think he'd ever get the chance.

"I sort of shrugged it off. He told me that last year, that he was going after that deer, but he didn't get it," Wahl said. "Then he did call me [to say he had harvested it] while I was on my way to work."

The owner of Take This Job and Stuff It taxidermy was at his friend's house that evening, skinning the animal in preparation for his first full-body mount of an albino buck.

"It was my first albino animal," he said. "It was a little different. We had to keep it a secret that it was even in the shop at all -- that was the biggest obstacle of all."

Kinnaman explained that after the flood of feedback following his kill -- positive and negative -- he thought it would be more prudent not to reveal where the buck was being preserved.

"I was excited and nervous at the same time," he said.

Wahl said the process turned out to be trickier than a normal buck's mount would have been, since typically the coloration patterns serve as a guide.

"I'd done about eight or 10 full-body mounts before, but this one turned out to take longer," he said. "I called Jerry and told him, 'I know I told you $1,800, but it's probably going to be a little more.' I ended up putting 55 hours in on Jerry's deer."

Wahl said despite some negative feedback percolating through the community, Kinnaman's harvest was likely a more humane way for the buck to go out.

"It is a shame that they can't live forever, but none of us do," Wahl explained. "If it would have died of starvation, it would have been a shame. He'd have been gone forever."

Now, Kinnaman says he'd be willing to put the buck in the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center; an old friend of his who volunteers there told him the center would be interested in displaying the buck, but Kinnaman said he'd only be interested if it's what people want.

"I'm not sure if that's what I want to do with him yet, I want to enjoy him for a couple of months right now," he said. "But I'd be willing to do that. I know how much of a folk hero he was around here. It might bring some comfort."

No one from the Conservation Nature Center was available for comment Monday, but, for the next few months at least, the buck will remain in Kinnaman's home.

tgraef@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

2289 County Park Dr, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701