Marion Twp. man raises deer on farm
MARION TWP — Deer farming can be exhausting, but when Rocco Sloboda sits on his porch at night and sees his deer playing together, it's all worth it.
“I see those fawns running around out there, and playing and bucking like wild horses,” Sloboda said. “It's just unbelievable.”
Sloboda, 68, runs Fantasy Whitetails, a deer farm in Boyers. He breeds, raises and sells deer to people who run hunting preserves.
The Sloboda family has lived and hunted deer in Western Pennsylvania for generations.
He cooked up the idea to run a deer farm and opened Fantasy Whitetails in 2005.
“When I thought of a name for this place, it's every hunter's dream,” Sloboda said. “His fantasy is to shoot the biggest buck there is.”
The Slobodas started with two bucks and two does, and at their peak, they had 170 deer.
After about three years, some of the bucks are sold to be hunted on preserves.
Sloboda has been mulling over turning his property into a hunting preserve, so he could cut out the middle man and have his deer hunted on his property for a fee.
A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.
