Yeesh, I felt so bad for him.

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Dingfelder

Member
Jul 18, 2020
1,125
11
Oregon, United States
We get deer every day. I recognized this guy. Passed him by walking around our deck to where I thought some ground squirrels might be. Paid no mind to him one way and the next, and he paid no mind to me, maybe 20 yards. Unless they're in my garden, I'm goofy that way and am pro-Bambi. I let them be.

No squirrels, back in the house, took out monoculars to look at the buck. Horns not too big, he's on his way in life but not there yet. Let's see the pretty fellow ...

Skin torn off the top of his left leg almost entirely and left to hang like an inside-out sock from the knee down. Leaf litter or whatever on the raw exposed muscle. I wonder if he will die, how long, how miserably. I shoot pests and have just started, and am totally cool with that. Don't have the heart to shoot deer, so sue me. But I'm left wondering ... will he recover? Is he better off being left alone, or left to die? Legal is one thing, and I'm not saying anything about that ... do you ever feel an ethical responsibility toward animals you've just randomly come across? And what do you think my ethical responsibility is towards this one? An apparently healthy one completely exposed to infection along a huge length of his body. How is that huge flap of skin all around not going to keep on snagging things and getting pulled away, exposing him to ever more pain and infection?

To be clear, he is limping. No way in heck I would figure even a breeze isn't quite painful. Should I call someone? Do something? Even something others might think of as cruel .. and that I'm not keen on myself?

I'm only barely part of nature, and don't kid myself otherwise. I just wonder where to stand when I see an animal clearly in trouble.
 
Fish and Game or a wildlife rescue service (often they partnership with your local government). I have worked for a wildlife vet in my old life for exotic reptiles. Crazy the stuff you will see, but never the less we would go to great lengths in order to rescue every kind of animal you can think of. However, there were times we had the exact opposite mentality, notably with a Louisiana snapper that would be brought in from time to time - we would kill those ASAP as they are not indigenous to our waters and eat a lot of the reptiles.
 
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Years ago I broke my tibia and fibia and as I lay there trying to remain completely still to avoid the feeling of shattered bone grinding together I thought about animals in the wild with no surgeries or even opposable thumbs to duct tape a broomstick to it. Lucky for them they don’t know how to feel sorry for themselves. It did help further my distaste for people who only shoot their deer guns once a year and after drinking 9 beers or know their zero is off and just hold 2 feet to the left and 6 inches high.
 
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About 10 or 11 years ago, a couple stray dogs got a fawn down in my yard and chewed her back leg pretty bad. I was throwing some corn out for them because it was a bad winter with lots of snow on the ground. That fawn disappeared for a few days but came back on 3 legs. I kind of adopted her and her family and fed her every day for 9 years. She raised 1 or 2 fawns every year and most were bucks. I think coyotes finally took her down but not sure. They are tough, smart, and want to live. I have killed a bunch of deer in my life but don't have the passion for it anymore. I am not against hunting at all and let a few people hunt on my land, but I always told them to leave that 3 legged deer alone. Her descendants still come in my yard every day for a few handfuls of corn.
 
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I hate hosps and shoot them any chance I get. This spring alone they drove off 4 pairs of nesting finches. However, I have been nursing a female hosp with a broken wing for about a week. At night I place it inside a box to keep it safe, and in the morning I place it in a bird feeder with a water dish. It's eating and drinking, but I doubt the wing will heal properly and it's only a matter of time.
 
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There is nothing wrong with feeling ethically responsible for animals. Those that don't just haven't evolved enough from their caveman ancestors. I was headed back to my truck at lunch time a couple years ago in archery season. I found a young doe hanging by her back leg from a deer fence that goes along the highway. I put my bow and treestand down and went to work getting her free. She kicked the crap out of me but once I got her free, she couldn't walk. She had a broken pelvis. I got my 9mm out of my pack and had tears in my eyes as I shot her. Couldn't even bring myself to tag her for the freezer. I buried her where a tree uprooted. Isn't it funny how a person can go from sitting all morning trying to kill a deer to depressed that he had to. Its called respect.
 
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You guys are killing me,,, I am out here in West Texas, I read where all you East Texas shooters are shooting tree squirrels, None out here , But about four years a ago a tree squirrel showed up, Someone must have brought him in with the fire wood, Been feeding them trying to get the population built up , I feed Chicken scratch year round to shoot the sparrows coming around and the Euro doves , I even buy the bird feeder stuff for the squirrels, The most I have seen so far are three... They have kind of became my pets, Yep I have to stop my target shooting as they get in the way... They are so cute and fun to watch.....

I am just getting old , poop.

Mike
 
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I hate hosps and shoot them any chance I get. This spring alone they drove off 4 pairs of nesting finches. However, I have been nursing a female hosp with a broken wing for about a week. At night I place it inside a box to keep it safe, and in the morning I place it in a bird feeder with a water dish. It's eating and drinking, but I doubt the wing will heal properly and it's only a matter of time.
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Nurse it back to health and then you can shoot it!! Sort of a quote from second hand lions. lol
 
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I've shot deer with deep imbeded broadheads from the prior seasons that had healed into muscle, ones with a whole foot missing that ran like almost nothing was wrong, and tons of deer with .22 rounds and pellets throughout their bodies. Deer are tough animals and one with the injuries you describe could easily heal and live out its life with that injury, especially in a suburban setting where food is plentiful and that lacks major predators.
 
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i was sitting in a tripod watching over a food plot i made under a transmission line that runs thru my property. 

seen several yearlin's and there mom's, right before pitch-black dark i hear a ruckus that sounded like

humans fighting for blood.....come to find a damn coyote attacked a young fawn just out of spots, maybe

3-4 months old.

i put down that coyote from about 40yrds with my PB and got down from the tripod to go see if the fawn had life left after being attacked.

little buck it was !!! and a strong willed one at that.

his left front leg was completely detached and bleeding badly.

i guess the young fellow was in shock because he didnt try to fight me off.

i call my grandsons for help. they arrived with the covered trailer and we put the young buck inside and took it to the farm to try and help him out.

well, to make this story short, 4 years have gone by and we see that buck on our property

all the time with several of his families.

my grandsons, and myself.. have learned a lesson in wildlife care.

he always brings a big smile to our faces when we see him.👍
 
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Nice stories, good to hear they sometimes survive.

I called the Dept of Fish and Wildlife and was advised that there won't be anything done until the deer can't get up anymore. At that point, I can call the Sheriff's and they will come do their thing with it.

The next day I was walking around the house on the deck we have surrounding most of it, and that buck got startled by my footsteps and came out from under it. He maybe a dozen feet from me, and we gazed at each other. His stripped upper leg looked dark. I put on a soothing tone of voice and walked on. I haven't seen him back yet. We have deer sleeping close by the house pretty frequently. It would be a good place for him to heel, as there are acorns all around and we have a little fountain for water. Next time I see him, I will back away quietly and let him be. He needs the space more than I do, for now.

On the positive side, I did get the squirrel I was going after. :D
 
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I've shot deer with deep imbeded broadheads from the prior seasons that had healed into muscle, ones with a whole foot missing that ran like almost nothing was wrong, and tons of deer with .22 rounds and pellets throughout their bodies. Deer are tough animals and one with the injuries you describe could easily heal and live out its life with that injury, especially in a suburban setting where food is plentiful and that lacks major predators.
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When I was a teenager I hunted with a bow. One of the deer that I harvested had a broadhead embedded in it's spine! It was broken off and healed over but infected. I almost cut myself on it as I was taking his cape. I had no idea the thing was in him. He was acting perfectly normal when I shot him.
 
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