On Sunday afternoon, while I was sitting half asleep and replete after a good lunch and a hard morning's work clearing a tree that had been blown down across the stream, I had a call from a neighbour. A walker had reported an injured deer caught in a fence. Could I come and assist?
When I got there, my friend had managed to extricate the juvenile fallow buck and had brought it back to an empty stable. It was badly injured. It had attempted to jump the fence and had caught a hind leg between a strand of barbed wire and the top strand of the wire stock fencing. The twisted wires had cut right through to the bone all round the hock and the poor little thing must have been hanging there by its hind leg for some time. The only humane thing to do was to end its suffering without delay.
We gently wrapped its head and eyes in an old towel to keep it as quiet as possible, carried it outside onto some soft ground (for safety) and killed it with a swift shot to the back of the head.
Apart from its injury, the deer appeared to be in good health and condition. My friend suggested that I might like the carcass 'for the dogs', but I had other ideas. After gralloching, inspection of the animal's organs confirmed its sound condition and I had no hesitation in preparing it for the larder. I would far rather the deer had not caught itself in a wire fence, but waste not, want not.
Burnt Ash
When I got there, my friend had managed to extricate the juvenile fallow buck and had brought it back to an empty stable. It was badly injured. It had attempted to jump the fence and had caught a hind leg between a strand of barbed wire and the top strand of the wire stock fencing. The twisted wires had cut right through to the bone all round the hock and the poor little thing must have been hanging there by its hind leg for some time. The only humane thing to do was to end its suffering without delay.
We gently wrapped its head and eyes in an old towel to keep it as quiet as possible, carried it outside onto some soft ground (for safety) and killed it with a swift shot to the back of the head.
Apart from its injury, the deer appeared to be in good health and condition. My friend suggested that I might like the carcass 'for the dogs', but I had other ideas. After gralloching, inspection of the animal's organs confirmed its sound condition and I had no hesitation in preparing it for the larder. I would far rather the deer had not caught itself in a wire fence, but waste not, want not.
Burnt Ash