When R. went out to walk Baskin Saturday morning, about 6:45, he noticed blood in the snow in the far SW corner of our 7 acres. He followed the trail of blood to the edge of our pine trees, where he found this young buck. Judging from his size and 4 antler points, we think he was less than two years old. Probably one of the crew born in our relatively safe yard. We've had fawns in our yard every summer for the last 20 years, maybe longer. We have a lot of shrubs and trees, good places for the does to hide their babies during the day. When he was a puppy, we trained our now 14-year-old Standard Poodle not to chase the deer, so they know this is a good place to hang out. Obviously, we can't protect them from everything.
About 18 years ago, we found a large buck (10-12 points) dead not far from this spot, and evidence that someone had driven into our front yard, looking for him. Both times, someone was hunting at night, which is illegal.
We live in a subdivision, for Pete's sake. There are lots of legal places to hunt. Don't hunt in my yard. Don't hunt at night, when you can't see what you else you might be shooting. And don't hunt out of season. Deer season was over weeks ago.
But this wasn't the only victim. Later in the day we found evidence that another deer had been shot about 100 feet from the house, then dragged through the yard on the NW end of our property. The poacher broke the bottom rail on our fence and pulled out the barbed wire in order to drag the deer through and load it onto his vehicle. We figure he left the young buck on the other side of the house because he didn't see where it fell.
We've dealt with dead or dying deer before--mostly victims of vehicles--so we knew what to do. This was our 5th or 6th call. The county's Solid Waste department has a truck with a huge crane which picks the animals up and drops them into a large bin in back. But you have to drag the deer to the road, because they won't drive the heavy truck through your yard. (Nor would we want them to.) We learned with that first buck to roll the animal onto a tarp, then drag the tarp through the yard. Snow on the ground makes it easier. It's still a workout, though. Especially for two 60-somethings.
More photos are in an album here. The sheriff's deputy wanted to see them. He was nice, but they can't do much. Poachers move on. I'm glad no neighborhood children or pets were hurt by these people. But I'm still angry.
5 comments:
That would make me angry, too, Ellen. So sad that people can't be respectful of boundaries. Make me think of Robert Frost's Mending Wall. I sure hope that this doesn't happen again. Good for you writing about it, Ellen!
Long hug,
Nessa
I'm so sorry, Ellen! What is wrong with people anyway?
How awful! Some people are just hateful trash.
I'd love to have a few acres to make a safe haven
for wildlife, but if someone wants to hurt them,
there is really no stopping them, is there? Pity.
Hi, my dad sent me the link to the TN article. I also live in Montpier. That is very sad about the deer. We have deer in our yard all the time. And you guys aren't backed up to a farm. You are literally in the middle of the neighborhood. That makes it even more scary for the safety of our pets and children. I hope you find out who did it.
I have no illusions about "catching" the person who went around shooting the deer that night. (We've since found out that a third deer was shot, two houses down.) Nor can I begin to fathom his or her reasons.
We've tried to create a safe haven for wildlife on our property, but it's a fact of life that predators are always nearby. Human and animal. The poacher, the coyote, the fox. Most of the time, they don't cross over into our little world. I'm grateful that it happens so seldom. May it always be so.
Post a Comment