With just 10 sleeps until Christmas a Victorian teenager is fighting to save Rudolph - an orphaned baby deer government authorities plan to kill.
The Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources won a court order on Friday at Seymour Magistrates' Court to kill Rudolph, believing the fawn could pose a danger to public safety.
Andrew Foots, 19, from Mansfield, has hired lawyers to appeal the decision and wants Rudolph given a new home at a wildlife park.
He found and rescued the malnourished and distressed fawn in bushland near Mansfield.
He was only planning to keep it until alternative arrangements could be found, and took it to a vet to have it checked and to get advice on how to care for it.
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But several days later, the department and police came and took Rudolph away.
An appeal date is set for February 18 at Shepparton County Court.
In the meantime, Mr Foots' lawyer says it is a waste of taxpayers money to hold the fawn at the department when several wildlife parks would take Rudolph.
"It's really a case of the department being prepared to spend taxpayers' money killing a deer when there was a much better and non-lethal option available," Phoenix Legal Solutions' Daniel Beecher told AAP on Tuesday.
Mr Foots' Facebook page has pictures of him posing with dead deer after hunting expeditions.
His lawyer says the photos are old and his client no longer owns a weapon or kills deer.
"Just because you shoot animals doesn't mean that you are going to be unkind all animals that need assistance," Mr Beecher told AAP.
The department will not comment while the case is before the courts.
