My aunt called me at work today. She said she had a doe laying in her yard that was obviously having problems. It was just laying there on it's side, it was breathing, but not moving much, was covered with flies and had lost alot of its' hair. I told her to call the MD DNR and have one of their officers come look at it, because it sounded like this may be a diseased animal and probably needed to be taken care of. This was at 9 o'clock this morning. At noon she called me back. She said the doe had tried to get up several times, but couldn't. It appears that she has no control over the back part of her body (ie. possibly a broken hip or back or possibly a nuerological problem). DNR still hadn't shown up. My aunt just called me back at 3P and said she called DNR again but was told "their officers had more important priorities at this time and someone may come later tonight or tomorrow morning." Whhhhhhaaaaattt??? Tomorrow morning???? This is obviously a sick or seriously wounded animal. It's obviously suffering. Why in the world would you make it suffer overnight? And seriously, what can possibly be keeping all their officers busy until tomorrow?? I realize the DNR has many responsibilties and they are spread thin, but I have trouble believing they can't get SOMEONE to look at/take care of this animal before tonight or tomorrow. What if this is a diseased animal?? They don't want to check it out as soon as possible?
Sorry, just venting, but this just doesn't seem right.
You would think that this would be a slow time of year for the DNR and that they would be able to get someone out there right away. Does she have someone nearby that can come over and put the animal out of its misery?
Well, I had told her to call the DNR because from what she described, I wasn't sure it wasn't a diseased animal. I would have thought that DNR would want to check into this and make sure there wasn't a disease spreading through the herd.
My aunt called a little while ago, my uncle got home and saw the animal, heard that DNR wasn't responding and put the animal down himself. In her struggles to get up during the day, she had broken 3 of her legs and was in serious distress.
I have no doubt in my mind that my uncle did the right thing, I just hope DNR doesn't hassle him about dispatching the animal out of season. Crazier things have happened!!
Lefty, I thought the same thing as you, that DNR shouldn't be that busy this time of year. Especially on a work day. I mean, the Potomac river is near by and they patrol the river, but how many people are on the river on a Wednesday?? No hunting seasons are in, so they shouldn't have had many other calls to take. I don't know. I'm just really disgusted at the whole thing. I've been losing alot of respect for the DNR recently. Here's another example: In MD it is the law that you have to tag an animal before moving it from the place of kill. Ok, I'm good with that. BUT, what I have a problem with is that the local DNR officers have made a habit in recent seasons of sitting at the local checking station (which happens to serve coffee and breakfast and lunch). The officers sit there, eat their breakfast, read the paper, and drink their coffee inside the checkin station, then walk outside when a deer/turkey is brought in, look at the deer/turkey, determine it has a tag and then go back inside to continue with their coffee, and paper. How is this right??? Why not go out and look for real violations?? Why waste taxpayer money eating, drinking and reading?? It is my understanding that the officers have not caught anyone violating the tagging law at the checking station.
Your Uncle may have just assured that they'll show up..... to write him a ticket!!
I hit a deer two years ago that managed to drag itself away. I had no weapon and was close to home so I called the PGC and they said they couldnt send someone "too busy" I told them I would go back out and put the deer down (it had made it about 40 yards in and was barely visible from the road) They went ballistic and told me if I killed it I'd get a fine!
Thank goodness somebody else saw it and took care of business. With caller ID etc I sure wasn't able to do the right thing once I alerted the bureaucrats. I'll know what to do next time
__________________
Cant wait for 2012!
If guns kill people, spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat!!!
Lemme guess... she called the western regional office. Those folks are a waste of funding. When I was living in Western MD (Swanton) I had a large bear struck by a car infront of my home. It totally destroyed a Oldsmoblie Bravada...not a small car so this bear had some size. After calling 911 for the drive who was slightly injured I began to look around for the bear ( after retrieving my Dan Wesson .44 mag) figuring that it couldnt have made it that far considering the amount of blood. Boy was I wrong. I followed the trail for a hundred yards til I came to my senses and realized what I was doing... It is nuts to go after an obviously wounded bear at night. I went back home and called DNR. The reply I got from them just about floored me... Just stay inside for a while.. the bear will go off and die...and we can send someone out TOMORROW AFTERNOON as all officers are too busy right now. This was at 1 am. What are they all doing at 1 am that they are too busy???
Anyway, the bear didnt go off and die. It was spotted the next day dragging itself by its front legs only. DNR was again called...still too busy to respond. The locals then took it into thier own hands from what I heard and applied the 3 "S" rule. I was also told it was atleast a 400 pound boar. This was about 10 years ago. I see from this thread that things in MD havent changed.
I grew up in Smithsburg and hunted all over washington and frederick counties. I never once ran into an officer in the field in 20+ years of hunting in MD on both public and private land. What does that tell you?
__________________
Administrator-West Virginia Hunting Forum
http://wvhunting.proboards26.com/index.cgi
Totally understand your frustration, but I think we need to factor in how many Natural Resources Police officers there are to cover these large regions? No where near enough...
Next time you see a sick animal or vehicle wounded animal don't call the NRP, leave them alone to catch the poachers. Call PETA or the Humane Society... let's see what they will do to assist in the situation.
You know, I'd say it was ok if they did at least catch some poachers, but that's not always the case, either. A couple of years back, I got a call from my friend. I could tell from his voice that he was shaken when I answered the phone. He told me he had just gotten in from bowhunting. While bowhunting, he saw a car stop, some guys get out and then the car drive away. He wasn't sure what was going on, but continued hunting. A few minutes later, some deer came by and my buddy was shaken when the guys started opening fire on the deer with .22's. Because of the lay of the land, my buddy was directly in the line of fire. He could actually hear the bullets hitting the branches around him. He yelled and the firing stopped. He noticed a deer was down, but being that he was out numbered and obviously had less firepower, he climbed down and drove home, and called the DNR. DNR informed him they were too busy and probably couldn't get someone there "for a while".
So, if they are too busy for sick/wounded animals and too busy for poachers, what are they doing???
I'm sure the local paper would love the story. I'd bet you that if this story got published in some sort of newspaper, they would change their ways real quick.
Your uncle did the right thing. Let us know what happened with the DNR [:@].
Priorities messed up!!
