Bambi Day

Too Many Deer

I am always sad during deer season because we have deer on the back side of my place, and I always worry that they are perhaps a little too tame. We don't feed them or put out minerals or anything for them, as we don't want them to get too used to humans.

Almost every year we have a doe with at least one fawn that lives in a little sheltered area back in a very dense area of trees. If you are very very careful in the spring you can sneak up and watch the fawn sleeping in the grass, waiting for its mamma to come back home.

I came from an area near a national wildlife refuge, and I have seen what happens to deer when they over populate. They get all mangy, get diseases, and sometimes starve to death. I know there is a reason to harvest the deer, and back in my younger days knew quite a few people that poached deer all year long just to have meat to eat. I still worry about MY deer, and hope they don't get shot.

What started me on this line of thought was the guns going off all day. It started when I was woken this morning by a neighbor or someone hunting in the area shooting what sounded like a cannon at the break of dawn. There was only one shot, so I am guessing they got their deer.

Some hunters just aren't very good at recognizing deer. I had a great dane mix named Pepper (who passed away many years ago) that was about the size and color of a doe. Twice he got shot during arrow season for deer. I got to where I wouldn't let him out during deer season. The second time he got shot in the ear, and it left a permanent hole (great danes have floppy ears like a hound if you don't trim them so Peppy had floppy ears). I called it his pirate earring hole. He almost bled to death before my niece and my mom got him to the vet (I was at work) since the arrow was a razor type that cut a big X in his ear right through a big vein. I think the hunters that had buck fever and were aiming at my Peppy would have been mighty disappointed if they had succeeded in killing him. I don't think Peppy would have been very good eating, he would have been a bit stringy. (The picture isn't of Peppy, just one I found of a dane with long ears).

My sister used to live near a wildlife conservation area that allowed deer hunting for the public. During deer season she didn't let her children play outside because they had so many spent bullets hitting their house and outbuildings. I think some people just don't respect how far a high powered bullet can travel. Last year a spent bullet hit my sunroom. I'm not too impressed with these kind of hunters. They are a danger to themselves and others.....and great danes!