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RALEIGH (AP) — The prosecutor who dropped a charge against a Randolph County man whose nine penned deer were shot and killed by authorities said Thursday it's not clear that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has the authority to destroy deer without going to court.

And Wayne Kindley, the man whose deer were killed, said the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission hasn't heard the last from him.

"We're not stopping here. We're going to keep going," Kindley said after the charge, which carried a $10 fine, was dropped.

Kindley had been charged with holding deer in captivity without a permit. State biologists shot and killed the deer in September because authorities said the deer had to be tested for chronic wasting disease. The debilitating and fatal disease has been found in 19 states, although not in North Carolina.

In dismissing the charge, Randolph County District Attorney Garland Yates said he wasn't implying that Kindley did have a permit. Rather, the issue was moot because the deer are dead, he said.

The evidence indicates that the biologists — who are part of the commission's Division of Wildlife Management — believe they had the authority to kill the deer, he said in a news release. But state law isn't clear on that point, Yates said.

"The district attorney believes that the question of the disposition of deer held in captivity without a permit needs to be clarified through statute and/or an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission rule change," Yates said.

The commission is reviewing whether the biologists had that authority, spokesman Geoff Cantrell said.

The killing of seven fallow deer and two white-tailed deer Sept. 20 on Kindley's farm caused international outage on the Web, where more than 22,000 people have signed a petition in protest. It also brought an unusual amount of attention to the commission, which typically works with little fanfare. The commission's board chairman hurriedly adjourned the October meeting when a protester yelled "shame, shame, shame" after not being allowed to speak.

Gordon Myers, executive director of the commission, said Thursday that Kindley had been warned repeatedly since 2003 that he had to have a permit to keep deer.

"We recognize the district attorney's authority to dismiss this charge," Myers said in a statement. "However, our actions in this matter, although unpopular, were directed toward safeguarding North Carolina's wildlife resources."

Kindley said the dismissal of the charge shows the commission was out of bounds.

"That's the way I look it," he said. "They went above the law and took the law in their own hands and didn't care about anybody's rights and killed my animals. I'm still sad, and my wife is still sad. She cries a lot."

Martha Waggoner can be reached at http://twitter.com/mjwaggonernc