BALTIMORE -- State officials revised a policy involving illegally-held captive deer, but one lawmaker believes it's not enough.

Maryland's Department of Natural Resources will now give deer owners 90 days to find a new out-of-state home for the deer, instead of ordering the animal's death immediately.

No citations will be issued in this period, but if an owner hasn't found a new home for the deer, the department will try to get permission from the owner to humanely euthanize the deer and test for disease.

Images: DNR Euthanizes Deer To Check For Disease

But the change comes a few months too late for some Anne Arundel County residents, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Rob Roblin reported.

DNR officers told Allen Anderson, who kept 18 fallow deer at his home in Anne Arundel County, that his pets had to be euthanized to test for chronic wasting disease.

"He said we have the authority and the obligation to destroy the animals, and that's what were going to do," Anderson said last October.

Anderson said the officers told him that if he did not give them permission to take the animals, he would be arrested.

Those actions, and two other similar cases, caused outrage, Roblin reported.

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Rob Roblin Reports: Lawmaker Wants Apology For Deer Killings

"We empathize with them, but we're hopeful that they recognize our goal remains the same and that this wasn't personal," DNR representative Paul Peditto said. "What were hoping is that this is a mechanism that people come will forward tell us that they have these animals illegally and will work with us to get to that outcome to get rid of them."

In January, Anne Arundel County Delegate Don Dwyer Jr., R-District 31, announced his plans to introduce legislation to limit the DNR's police power in his county. He said his mission is not about the deer, but about his citizens' constitutional rights.

"This issue remains, for me, about the constitutional violations that were perpetrated on my constituents -- the violations of due process, the fact that their private property was destroyed, no, slaughtered, and the fact that they have yet to be granted an apology of any form from the state or the department recognized what was wrong here," Dwyer said.

So far, there have not been any reports of chronic wasting disease in Maryland. Because of the risks of spreading chronic wasting disease, owners won't be allowed to release the captive deer into the wild.

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