I think what happened was ridiculous - harassment rather than serving the public. The logic does not hold water - an attached tag could easily be untied and used again in the another day once the deer was taken home. The important element here was that it was validated, thus rendered unusable should you go out again and it was the only tag you had left. Should have been a warning or at most a nominal fine with advice to bring wire along for firmly attaching the tag next time. The warden should focus on the real poachers rather than splitting hairs and putting the OP through the wringer on this. This shows a tremendous failure of the MI dnr it trying to secure public trust and support.
***As a retired state of MI employee with over 30 years in LE experience with the MI Dept. of Ag who tried to use common sense while enforcing over 130 different laws and regulations my job was responsible for, I couldn't have said it any better than that Sir!!! To the best of my knowledge this change in the law has never been publicized to the general public who have to abide by it and it really ticks me off that I've been violating it unintentionally every Spring and Fall since whenever it was changed. I could just as easily been the OP in this thread and I can guarantee if that had been the case there would have been some heads rolling up the ladder at the main DNR Offices on it! There was absolutely no reason for anything other than a verbal warning
IF what the OP stated is exactly the true facts in the case and that is only known by that individual and the citing Officer!