Christmas Tree Magnate Charged in Deer’s Death : Investigation: Stuart T. Miller and his son face charges of cruelty to animals.

A well-known Christmas tree magnate was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals after the death of one of the European deer he uses as stand-ins for reindeer on his sales lots.

The animal died after it snagged its antlers in coat hangers and chicken wire in a debris-littered Granada Hills pen where eight deer were kept without sufficient food, water or shade, animal welfare officers said.

Stuart T. Miller, 52, and his son, William T. Miller, 31, both of Malibu, were each charged with one count of cruelty to animals and with possessing wild animals without a permit, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said. The Millers had a permit to keep the deer, but it expired in April, a spokesman said.

The Millers did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Officers of the city Department of Animal Regulation made two trips to the pen in the 12000 block of Jolette Avenue in Granada Hills after receiving a complaint from neighbors last month. On their second visit, Aug. 10, they found a deer writhing in pain with coat hangers and a 15-foot piece of chicken wire stuck in its antlers, said Deputy City Atty. Norman Wegener.

“Apparently, someone had tried to (use) the coat hangers to repair the chain-link fence” around the animals’ pen, Wegener said.

The deer died soon after, he said.

It was the second known death among Miller’s herd of fallow deer, a European species he uses to represent reindeer on some of the Christmas tree lots he operates throughout California.

In 1986, an 8-month-old fawn died, apparently of heart failure, on Miller’s Encino Christmas tree lot when animal control officers tried to widen its cage. Citizens had complained that the deer could not turn around in the eight-foot-wide pen.

The most recent death was also preceded by a neighbor’s complaint about the treatment of deer at the Granada Hills pen, authorities said.

Animal welfare officers who went to the site found the metal washtubs used to water the deer were empty, Wegener said. Although the deer showed no signs of dehydration, he said, “You know how hot it’s been this summer.”

In response, the officers posted a warning at the site ordering the Millers to improve the deers’ living conditions by installing an automatic watering system, repairing fencing and cleaning up debris, including coat hangers on the ground, Wegener said.

When the officers returned three days later, they found one of the deer “thrashing about on the ground, bawling and crying,” Wegener said, its horns entangled in coat hangers and chicken wire.

The officers cut the wire off the animal with bolt cutters, but it later died from its injuries, Wegener said.

The other deer were taken to a deer farm near Acton, where Miller raises the animals, Wegener said.

The charges were filed after a monthlong investigation, Wegener said.

Miller’s care of the deer was defended by Elvire McDerment, 67, a neighbor who visited the deer almost every day as she walked her dogs. She said she has never seen any evidence of cruelty to the deer.

“I was there at least five times a week, sometimes twice a day,” McDerment said in a phone interview Wednesday. “If at any time I would have seen something wrong, I would have reported it because I love animals.”

McDerment described herself as an animal lover who once reported a building management company to authorities when they tried to eliminate pigeons by placing glue on the roof.

She said that the deer were a neighborhood attraction and that even her dogs now miss seeing the gentle animals.

“I understand there was an accident with one of the deer, but there are accidents in the best of circumstances,” McDerment said. “If my dog falls in the pool, that doesn’t mean I am guilty of cruelty to animals.”

The senior Miller opened his first Christmas tree lot as a teen-ager in Granada Hills. The enterprise grew into Miller & Sons Christmas Tree Co. of Mission Hills, which proclaims itself the “McDonald’s of the Christmas tree business.” The company has operated as many as 50 lots around the state, including eight in the San Fernando Valley, and 13 elsewhere in the city.

Miller has become well-known for hardball business practices, including suing smaller Christmas tree dealers and quarreling with neighbors who complain about noise and lights from his lots.

He was involved for several years in a dispute with the Cicero family over selling Christmas trees from Pierce College land, a battle that came to be dubbed “The Christmas tree wars.” Miller complained that the Ciceros, who had a contract to farm part of the school’s campus during the rest of the year, were being allowed to sell trees there at Christmas without the legally required public bidding process.

He succeeded at one point in getting college administrators to order the Ciceros off the land, but in the end the Ciceros, who attracted widespread public sympathy, prevailed.

Several years ago, while arguing before the Redondo Beach City Council for permission to keep three fallow deer penned in a cage there, Miller responded to a question about animal cruelty: “Every one that I buy stays with me until he dies of natural causes. Every one that I don’t buy goes to a hunting ranch someplace in the United States and he ends up on the wall.”

He got permission.

The Millers are scheduled to be arraigned in San Fernando Municipal Court on Sept. 27. The charges are misdemeanors, carrying a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $20,000 fine.