What Would U have Done ???
03-13-2005, 08:48 PM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: West Central IL
Posts: 904
What Would U have Done ???
me and a buddy went shed hunting this weekend, and we were walking along a fence line near some brush, and we looked up and saw a deer with itsleg caught on a fence, I automatically thought it was dead, but to my surprise the deer lifted its head and was franticaly trying to run from us. we figure that we had better get the deer out of the fence, we walk up to it and somehow, in a very desperate meassure I assume, the deer frees its leg/foot from the fence. We watch it for a minute to see if it will be able to walk, it tries, but collapses after maybe three steps, the leg that was caught is broken, and its other hind leg was kinda messed up, but it may be able to heal. we sit with the deer for awhile, wondering what to do next. the deer then crawls under the fence and goes down in some thick cut down brushy stuff along a hillside. I had a knife with me, but this is the question. Would you have killed the Deer (which was a yearling), or would you have let it live, and hope it survive with three legs? I chose to let the deer live, in hopes that it would learn to cooperate with three legs. we helped her get its leg free from the fence as it was trying to run away under the fence, then we decided to let her be. I hope that we will see a three legged deer next year, then we will know we did the right thing.
03-13-2005, 09:04 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,616
RE: What Would U have Done ???
I would have let it live there is a deer down where i hunt, it had a broken leg and would walk around limping. i saw her for about 3 years then idk what happened to her. but she seemed to get around fine.
03-14-2005, 05:25 AM
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 579
RE: What Would U have Done ???
I've seen several 3 legged deer while hunting. As long as it's the front leg, the deer will have a chance. If it were a hind leg, I don't think the odds were as good. I think you made the right decision.
03-14-2005, 07:13 AM
#8
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
RE: What Would U have Done ???
You did the right thing by letting it go. Nature wil work things out just fine. Maybe it'll make it or maybe it'll feed the coytes. It is for Mother Nature to decide. Besides, suffering or not, you more than likely would be breaking game laws no matter what your good intent.
Good thing you didn't decide to try and use your knife to put it out of it's "misery". Too bad your friend didn't have some sort of camera, because three legs or not, that deer would have beat the snot out of you, and we could have seen the pictures o video!
There are alot of deer around here that get hit by cars. They're tough and there's plenty of them limping around, otherwise healthy bodies. One has a 18-inch "bubble" in it's back right knee and just kinda drags the leg around. It's body is a little scrawnier than the others, probobly cause it's the last one to the food. Another one has a back leg that looks like a couple z's, it grows a real strange looking rack every year due to it's injury.
Anyway, where are you at and did ya find any sheds?
Uncle Matt (in IL)
Good thing you didn't decide to try and use your knife to put it out of it's "misery". Too bad your friend didn't have some sort of camera, because three legs or not, that deer would have beat the snot out of you, and we could have seen the pictures o video!
There are alot of deer around here that get hit by cars. They're tough and there's plenty of them limping around, otherwise healthy bodies. One has a 18-inch "bubble" in it's back right knee and just kinda drags the leg around. It's body is a little scrawnier than the others, probobly cause it's the last one to the food. Another one has a back leg that looks like a couple z's, it grows a real strange looking rack every year due to it's injury.
Anyway, where are you at and did ya find any sheds?
Uncle Matt (in IL)