I have nothing against hunting in general, but hunting is not allowed in town parks, and most CERTAINLY not fifty yards from a house (mine). I got a shot of the license plate and will send it to the game warden; confronting armed men is not generally a real good idea.
So imagine how not-happy I was this morning when I was cooking up my Sunday morning breakfast and looked out the kitchen window to see a cop and a hunter dragging a doe across my backyard.
What. The. Actual. F*ck. I figured that the hunter had jacked the deer and the cop had caught him at it. In my backyard! Oh, I was loaded for bear. But I composed myself, waited until they were out by the road, and went to talk to them.
"Hey, guys," I said. "What happened here?"
The hunter explained that he was on his way to bow hunt when the car ahead of him, up on the main road not far from my house, hit the deer and kept right on going. (I have no idea how; hitting a deer generally causes a LOT of damage to the vehicle.) The deer, severely injured, managed to drag itself into the brush. The hunter, wanting to put the deer out of its pain (and possibly fill his freezer for the winter, let's be honest), grabbed his bow from his truck and started tracking it. He finally managed to put the deer down in the brush on my rear property line, then called law enforcement to explain the situation. (Hunting within a thousand yards of a house in this town results in massive fines, loss of hunting licenses, and surrender of firearms.) The cop came out to assay the situation, and, after determining that the hunter's story was true, filed the necessary paperwork so that the man could harvest the doe.
So here's a situation where I was glad to have a hunter on my property, putting that poor deer down. Those yahoos from yesterday, however ... well, I hope they get their due courtesy of the game warden.
And in other news ... look how big the Foster Campers are getting!
Ain't they sweet?
3 comments:
Really disturbing. And....not sure how shooting an ARROW into an animal puts it out of its misery as it will suffer immensely in the process, I would think. I have witnessed a cop being called to get an injured deer out of the road behind our house in Sterling, VA, and his shooting it because of the injuries involved. The hunter should have called the cop and let him handle it.
On the kitten side, yes, they are ever cute. And I don't think Mom expects to get much rest in the process of their being cute.
putting an arrow through the heart or brain ends the life immediately. if you allow the injured deer to wander around the woods with injuries it is going to slowly die. Maybe it won't be able to eat, maybe it won't be able to get away from predators who won't be able to kill it outright, etc.
I am not a fan of hunting but I can see the rationale of how sometimes it does actually help.
James P., I had the misfortune,some time ago, of having to watch a cop dispatch a deer that had been hit by a car. Let's just put it this way: The cop was a really, really bad shot, and it wasn't pretty. I have no doubt that an experienced bowhunter would have put the deer down much more quickly than that bungling cop did.
Like Tails said, a good shot from a bow is just as efficient as a bullet from a gun. This poor animal had two legs so badly broken, I have no idea how it made it as far as it did, and I am thankful for the bowhunter.
The death of any animal is disturbing, but sometimes it is a merciful gesture.
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