The mass shooting of a deer ranch’s entire deer population was temporarily halted by a last-minute stay order from the Fifth District Court of Appeals,  pending resolution of the rancher’s motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction.

Robert Williams, owner of the RW Trophy Ranch in Kaufman County, was given a stay from the euthanizing and postmortem disease-testing of his herd of approximately 500 whitetail deer, according to the April 15 order signed by Fifth District Justice Lana Myers.