The Great Suburban Whitetail Deer Incident

[BlueTrain]

No doubt something like this has happened to a lot of folks here but there's a first time for everything. Yesterday was my first time.

Someone knocked on my door yesterday afternoon to inform me that a deer had been hit and had ran into a corner of my yard, beside the house. I went outside and sure enough, there was a deer lying next to the fence. The passerby (lots of people walking their dogs all the time around here) had already called animal control. When the deer saw me, he struggled and managed to get through a split rail fence but only went another ten yards or so. Both hind legs were broken, I think. It couldn't stand.

Animal Control, which is a police department function here in Fairfax County, showed up in about 30 minutes. I took the young lady (armed and equiped like a policeman) to show her where the deer was lying. She goes back to her van and gets her rifle: a .22 Ruger. Two shots, one dead deer. The deer did not exactly sit there and allow itself to get shot but there was a minor chase involved.

I've lived in that house something like 22 years and I've seen lots of deer both near and not far away. Seeing a dead deer on the highway is common. Well, after the officer shot the deer, her part was done. The county doesn't remove the deer. She left it in the creek behind the house, just beyond our fence. I ended up dragging it to a place further from the footpath through the common property and covering it as much as possible.

An interesting thing is that she apparently had no objection to me killing the thing, provided I didn't use a firearm, although this whole thing did not amuse my wife at all. Anyhow, using a firearm is a big no-no around here but she said I was welcome to go down and cut its throat, although I suspect the deer would have been uncooperative like it was anyway. And besides, I didn't have a large knife with me.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

Too bad the meat was wasted.

 

[BlueTrain]

Yeah. Where is Sarah Palin when you need her?

I've never gutted a deer but my wife would have had a fit. I'd say the deer weighted over 100 pounds. As far as I know, judging from what the officer told me, the deer was all mine. Hunting is allowed around here within the county with bows, by the way, but I'm sure more are killed by cars. And this is a county with 1.3 million people.

 

[kraigwy]

That's a huge problem in many places. I think even here it's illegal for a non-LEO or Fish Cop to put down injured animals. I'm no peta moron by a long shot but I wont stand by and let an animal suffer. I'll do what I have to do and face the music.

I'm lucky though, I know the LE officers around here and I don't think I would have a problem.

Its getting bad in town. My Step daughter is a CSO (community service officer or go-fer for the cops). One day she was told to assist the WFG and count the deer in town. She got to 80 + in two hours and said "screw it, there are lots of deer". Some towns are worse then my small town.

I think Custer SD had the right ideal. They have a bow season in town for deer every now and then.

They destroy flowers and landscaping. They are a danger not only to them selves but to people also (via traffic accidents).

I even heard about one town in Kansas, (I think it was Wichita) where the County Prosecutor refused to prosecute poaching cases in dealing with deer in town.

I don't know the answer, but forcing citizens to deal with it by LEOs shooting deer in yards and walking away isn't the answer. Saying 'you can kill it but can't use a gun' sure as heck isn't the answer.

In Alaska, road kills were turned over to different charities. They maintained a list. The dispatcher would contact the next on the list who would come for the critter. I believe there are people who would love to have some meat to supplement their food stamps.

In todays economy I think that would be a viable program, it certainly wouldn't add that much to the PD or F&G's budget.

I hate to see an animal suffer and I hate waste. We need to get with our county commissioners and fish and game departments to get such programs going.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

The deer are a major problem in several villages around the Ithaca area. Especially Lansing and Cayuga Heights. It is now possible to hunt the periphery of these places but the problem deer never leave the unhuntable safety of the villages. Unfortunately, there are very wealthy, very vocal anti hunting groups around who blather on about sterilization and such nonsense. No amount of even Cornell research can dissuade them. In some areas, most plants and trees below the height of a deer standing on its hind legs are completely destroyed.

 

[BlueTrain]

I don't know the answer either but I didn't bring up any question in my post. It is legal to kill the deer but they are somewhat touchy about people shooting in town, you know, although I have shot rats in a townhouse community where I used to live. A .22 short fired from inside the kitchen works nicely but I'd rather not have anyone else around here shooting guns. This area is "heavily settled."

What happens to the carcass depends entirely on where it is. There are folks who go around and collect dead deer from roads but no where else. A dead deer in the woods is not a problem. The county has enough to do. If you want less government, it starts here. Anyhow, the subject of anti-hunting comes up now and then but there really isn't any objection for most people about killing deer. Beaver do just as much damage, too.

Say, my wife's grandfather on her father's side was from near Elmira and graduated from Cornell. That's the northern branch of the family.

 

[Mal H]

BlueTrain - the same thing happens out here in the country (I'm your neighbor one county over). I don't think a year has ever passed without a deer being hit very close to our house. They usually die on the spot without having to be put down. They are usually accompanied by pieces of headlights or other car body parts (just last week I found a piece of a plastic GM bumper near a deer carcass). It's a real problem and if it happens that often in a short stretch of our rural road how many are killed all over northern VA and elsewhere each year? Got to be hundreds of thousands.

Oh, and if the woods critters all do their thing like they do here, there won't be much left but a few bones in under 3 weeks.

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Common to see dead deer here. We've had near misses several times when driving. This Saturday I saw 4 dead ones as I drove off to a match.

We have giant flocks of turkey vultures. It will only take a short time.

 

[briandg]

There were a lot of deer collisions where my aunt lived. I suggested bow hunters, she suggested a program of darting and neutering the bucks.

Of course, I had a minor brain bleed at the absurdity of the situation.

"jane, if you eliminate all of the testosterone in the entire forest, all it takes is one buck, and there will still be enough semen to impregnate every doe in the county!"

i still wonder if she was just yanking my chain.

 

[BlueTrain]

I have only had one close call with a deer, only about a mile from home, about one o'clock in the morning on the way home from church at Christmas. Around here, there are so-called flood plains, parks, power line right-of-ways and so on that allow not only a large deer (and a fair number of beaver) population but also allows them to move around a lot, even without getting in someone's way. There is supposedly even a lot of deer in D.C., which also had a surprising amount of wooded areas. There are beaver, too, and one enterprising rodent chewed down a cherry tree near the tidal basin a few years back.

I expect the woodland creatures to find the carcass sooner or later but they'll leave the hide, mostly. Funny, deer seem to be a big problem to some people but not to others. Their problem is finding the deer.

 

[CLC]

Reminds me of the free deer my BIL/FIL got. When out hunting a few weeks ago they found a buck with its antlers ripped off and a stab wound. The game warden came out and shot it for them and said it was theirs. Bam, free deer. They think the deer got its antlers and stab wound from another buck. Anyway they still got their tags .

 

[Capt. Charlie]

The rut's in high gear right now. At other times of the year deer are at least semi-cautious about cars and trucks, but during the rut they have only one thing on their minds, and it ain't cars .

ODNR gives our dept. a book of permits to issue for downed deer. We maintain a call list for basically anyone that wants the meat, but they have to agree to respond to the scene when called, regardless of whether or not it's 3:00 am. (Obviously, excuses like work, illness, etc. are acceptable.) It works very well and there's usually a waiting list for a permit.

I'm surprised that your wildlife officer used a .22. It may suffice, but I wouldn't call it humane. I've dispatched many an injured deer with a 9mm, but even that's borderline for a clean quick kill.

 

[briandg]

I think a lot of city folk don't realize what deer problems are like. I've hit two. I drove over another.

Sort of an off topic story, but my wife and I were driving home from kansas city along a highway that parallels the MO border in ks. dark night, no moon. we were swinging along a curve, and suddenly there was stuff scattered all along the lane. hundreds of yards down the road a truck with a horse trailer was stopped with emergency flashers on. Heck, I hit the brakes, and crept up there, because there was a trail of gore and deer parts close to a quarter mile long. Got about 50 or so feet away, and finally found the head.

Figure that the thing was caught somewhere on truck or trailer, and every time a piece got under a tire, it was torn off. pretty much nothing bigger than a steak was left, it seemed, until the entire head and neck eventually fell off. Lord knows how many thousands of dollars worth of damage that collision caused on a rig that probably cost in the area of 40k.

 

[jgcoastie]

A .22lr to the brain from 5 ft away will kill them just as dead as a .44 Mag, just not as noisy.

Since it sounds like the OP is in a populated area, the noise factor is probably why a .22lr was used vice a centerfire.

 

[federali]

Here in New York

Despite any humanitarian motives, it is illegal, here in NYS, to euthanize an injured deer (I'm not talking about a second shot into a deer you wounded during a lawful hunt). Also, should you kill a deer with your motor vehicle, our dept of environmental conservation will issue you a permit to take the deer if you so choose.

I think you handled the situation correctly. In rural areas, many people would have taken the carcass for its edible meat.

 

[BlueTrain]

I am sure that the .22 was used because it is in fact a heavily populated area. I have no idea what else they carry around in their vans. However, the deer, even in such bad shape as it was, was doing its best not to let the officer get within five feet, only it didn't succeed. This all happened down in a very low area directly behind the house (down in the hollow) and the sound of the .22 was surprisingly loud. Nothing alarming, though. Lots of my neighbors are in the service.

Most dead deer look like they've just laid down and gone to sleep but now and then one looks like it went through a threshing machine the wrong way.

 

[Buzzcook]

Since it sounds like the OP is in a populated area, the noise factor is probably why a .22lr was used vice a centerfire.

Possibly, or it could be because a rifle is more accurate than a pistol or because a ricochet with .22 is slightly less dangerous than with a 9mm.

 

[hermannr]

I have no problem with a .22 to kill a deer. Our butcher used to shoot all the cattle we kept for freezer meat with a .22. Only one time did it take more than one shot..just behind the ear, pointed in the direction of the opposite eye. The only one that would not go down was a bull that would not stand still.

As for the meat, I know in OR and WA that law used to be the meat went to the Jail. I don't know if that is the case anymore with all the health inspection laws and all. You are not restricted in putting the injured animal down to end it's suffering, just from taking the meat.

 

[603Country]

A couple of years ago I was out in my parent's yard in Louisiana when a lady hit a medium sized doe. She stopped to check her car and then drove off, leaving the deer. It was about 400 yards from where I was standing, so all I could do then was watch. Then another car stopped and some young men got out and took a tire tool and thumped the doe a couple of times. That had the opposite of the desired result and the doe got up partially and got rowdy, but she had busted hips and couldn't run. It was hunting season and I had all my gear, so I stuck my 22 revolver in my pocket and rode my ATV out to the road. These were some hard looking young men that weren't looking at me like I was a long lost relative, so I stopped a bit short of them and asked if I could be of any assistance. One of the guys said "how about you take that pistol that's in your pocket and shoot the deer". Hmmmm, he knew I had a pistol. Trust me, it wasn't that obvious. Oh, well...I pulled out the pistol and shot the deer. They threw the deer in the trunk and without another word drove away. Anyway, in rural Louisiana as in rural Texas, we just shoot the wounded ones as necessary and most folks don't see that as odd.

 

[ltc444]

Deer are becoming a great problem in most cities.

I lived in Ramsey County MN for a couple of years. It is a game preserve. The gated community across from my home was a major force behind this regulation.

all went well until the die off occured. Fortunately, when the spring thaw occurred, the almost 900 dead were confined to the rich folks. I understand the stench was horrendous.

Eventually, I think bow hunting in side citys will become a necisity to control overpopulation.