From the sounds of it, the odds of it sticking around for a few years to nicely mature are between zero and zero.

Shoot it if you get the chance.

I'm glad everyone doesn't shoot young deer just because they might not ever see them again.

Young spotted fallow off to a good start. Meat not that great if he's in rut. Plus he's too young to shoot.

I used to have a white and a spotted on a lease that was high fenced. Escaped from the neighbor and got through a hole in our fence. Neighbor said "keep them". The white fallow grew into a great trophy at 5 years of age. Unfortunately, he figured out that he could jump in a feed pen and use his tall and massive antlers to knock the Eliminator plate, motor and control box completely off a feeder. Then he'd have close to six hundred pounds of corn on the ground. I got to the lease one day, found the feeder in that condition, repaired it and refilled, ONCE. I caught him banging on the box the next afternoon and ran him off. That night I went and found him with a spotlight and killed him. Killed the spotted the next morning, jic. Beautiful animals but I couldn't afford to have that big white fallow tearing up feeders and teaching the spotted how to do it, too.

East Texas state of mind - that "if it's got antlers shoot it" way of thinking landed many a Texas county in AR. If there are plenty of WT around and the OP's not starving what does it hurt to give the little guy a chance?

Not really the same when you're talking about exotics.

From my perspective, it's very much the same. I personally don't see the point in shooting an immature animal unless it's part of an established mgmt plan which this buck most definitely doesn't fall under. All the posts advocating his demise are referencing how tasty he would be, which is absolutely no different than shooting an immature WT buck having no idea what he could turn into simply because he would taste good. Whether or not the neighbor shoots this buck should have no influence on whether or not he dies, IMO he's very far from being a trophy and would look ridiculous on the wall with no palmation. If he's not going on the wall then he's no different than a WT doe - pure venison. The thrill of the kill just because he's something different is sad to me. I'd much rather take a chance on seeing him grow, providing him safe harbor, and possibly see him multiple times instead of just once. The chances of it working out that way might very well be slim to none, but IMO it would be the right thing to do, and exactly what I would teach my 12 year old to do. Just because we have dominion over God's creatures doesn't mean we have to slaughter them wantonly.

Because it's one of a couple that escaped, as outlined in this thread, there aren't others for it to breed with, and it's likely the only one in the area he'll (or any of the neighbors) will ever get a shot at?

"mgmt plan" are 2 words that are completely irrelevant to this conversation.