Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Nature, Red in Hoof and Paw

Other than Eric getting up at 5:15a or so, this morning started out normally enough.  The dogs got up with me around 7a and, as usual, went out for their morning potties.  Betty came back in before Delia, which is also normal.  A little while later Betty wanted back out, again normal: anyone with dogs knows the whole let-me-in-I-want-to-go-back-out routine.  But after she got out she started up with an uncommon bark: the intruder/stranger bark, which turned into some howling barks.  Not normal.

Of course, I chose not to take photos of a suffering animal or a bloody-faced dog.  I decided to put a few older photos in here instead.


Eric went out to see about it while I started getting their breakfast ready.  Wait, did I just hear him call for me?  That is unusual.  Still in my pajamas, I threw on some boots and grabbed the leashes, thinking maybe the dogs had treed something or were wanting to run off after some turkeys.  When I found them on the other side of the shop, Eric had both girls by their collars and told me there was a doe tangled in the neighbor's fence on their National Forest property line and that Delia had been gnawing on the leg.  The deer was still alive, but seriously wounded.





I leashed up the dogs and brought them in the house while he tried to free the deer.  I washed all the blood off or Delia's face while he had to cut a couple wires to free the doe.  Of course she couldn't walk and we didn't have a way to help her.  We called the sheriff who dispatched to Fish & Game and then called the neighbors to fill them in.

We met the neighbor lady at the fence and discussed our options, both practical and legal.  After calls to Fish & Game and our local game warden we had received permission to put her out of her misery (our only way to help her), but not to harvest the meat.  Since the neighbor kid (age 14) is an experienced hunter, his mom called him out of school and his older sister drove him home.  The game warden came a short time later to take the carcass, most likely to donate the meat to a local food bank.



Neither of us want to take up hunting and while we are omnivores who know and respect where our food comes from, we don't want to do the killing.  However, we also don't want to stand by helplessly while an animal suffers, especially if it suffers because of people living in its territory like we do.  This reminds us that living in this beautiful and wild (-ish) place means we'll have to have a working gun that we both know how to use and store safely.  Not only to scare off critters like bears that might harm our dogs, ourselves or our property, but also to help a suffering animal if we need to.

5 comments:

  1. I hate to say it, but I agree with you, fully. I used to volunteer at Sardi's Wildlife Shelter in WA, and there are times that someone has to...you know. It's also handy if you have to deal with a wounded and dangerous animal- pretty gutsy of your husband to attempt to free that doe, because believe it or not, a wounded deer can be a very dangerous proposition- kudos to him! (One second it's "can't walk", and the next it can be "I'm going to do my darnedest to KICK YOU TO DEATH". It's even more fun with certain carnivores- ask me how I know! LOL) I'm really, really sorry that you guys started out your day with that. That sucks.

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    1. Gutsy or ignorant? I had no idea they could be dangerous so maybe Eric didn't either, but of course it's obvious now that you said it. We think she was in shock, because she just lay (lie?) the motionless while he worked on cutting the wire. He back end turned out to be useless, she was only able to try to drag herself away from us with her front feet. Of course we gave her space, but I'm sure we looked like more bad news.

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    2. I have been informed that it was indeed bravery. Big, manly bravery. He was aware of the danger, but also aware that this doe had no fight left. Poor thing.

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  2. Boy, what a morning. Was the fence barbed, is that how she got tangled? Poor deer... I'm glad your neighbor boy was able to help, watching an animal suffer is one of the worst things I can imagine. Very distressing for all involved. Are you ok, Tara? I'll bet it was a bit shocking to find Delia gnawing on her too, good thing Betty's a tattle tale, who knows what you'd have found if she'd had more time.

    I'm sorry, my friend. This is definitely not the kind of adventure you look forward to moving to the wilds, or one that would have crossed the mind. What a biggo bummer. :(

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    1. It's a wire field fence on wood posts, so wires going both directions, welded (or maybe they're twisted) where they cross. I am lucky in that I didn't have to see Delia gnawing on the doe or even really see her while she was tangled. I was getting the dogs out of there, cleaned up and fed breakfast while Eric took care of that. I was there when she was shot, but was on the phone with the sheriff's office which was returning my call so had turned my back and walked a yard or two away.

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