Someone maimed a fawn!

[savingdogs]

We live in a forested area and the deer are tame due to a resort over the hill, where people feed them. This is a tiny hunting district, littered with periodic homes, so few people hunt here even outside the resort. We have been watching a doe with two fawns growing up, they just lost their spots (mule deer).

My 14-year-old found one of them dead yesterday, looking like it had been mauled by a blunt object! My husband called the authorities (haven't heard from them yet) and this morning, we found the body, dragged into our driveway by some wild animal, and parts missing now. Not sure they can tell anymore what happened to it.

I'm all for people killing the excess bucks for meat, but a FAWN? I'm really mad. I hate to think of what human thought this was an interesting sport.

 

[k0xxx]

Are you sure that it wasn't hit by a vehicle?

I know that there are those out there that hunt them as I once heard a fellow bragging to his friends about shooting fawns because the meat is more tender, and he can put a whole fawn on the spit to cook. Some people are just.... well, I won't type that here.

 

[savingdogs]

I suppose that would look pretty beat up. At this point it is hard to tell.

Thanks for giving me a better idea of what might have happened. That at least sounds accidental.

 

[Bettacreek]

That's what I'd assume... car accident. I can't really see someone getting close enough to bludgeon a mule deer fawn to death.
As for hunting them... if I was out and had choice and wasn't worried so much about amount of meat (like say if I had already shot a buck), I'd take a yearling fawn over the mother doe. For one, yes, the meat is much more tender, for two, the momma has a better chance of making it than the fawn anyways, and momma being alive gives the other fawn more of a chance of survival as well.

 

[lorihadams]

I just passed up 4 itty bittys the other day....that being said, I have shot small does before because we just have waaaay too many does on our property and they needed to be thinned out. I would rather take a small doe over a small buck or spike any day.

It sounds to me like it probably was hit by a car. Still sad though.

 

[savingdogs]

Yea, and today I saw just one of the fawns, no doe.

 

[SKR8PN]

You'd be surprised how much damage a car can do to a deer, and visa-versa.........


The Wife blasted a doe on her way to work a couple weeks ago. 2500.00 worth of damage here and one doe completely destroyed. The deer went under the tire and did damage to the drivers door as well.

I am thrilled the she was driving the Durango and not the Sebring convertible that morning!! That could have been disastrous to the wife!

 

[savingdogs]

Wow! We are convinced now that it was hit by a vehicle, we just did not think of that as the explanation. It makes more sense than anything else and I could not imagine why someone would kill a deer and not take it to eat, but that does.

I'm glad your wife is okay.

 

[justusnak]

Yup, hitting a deer can be fatal! I just heard a story on the news last night...a car hit a deer...throwing it into the car next to it. The deer went through the window, killing the passenger of the car! They are on the run...so everyone please be carefull out there!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

This is mule deer turf, but the white tails moved in after the forest fires of 2003 opened the area up. The whities are taking over big time, and many cross bred fawns are being seen, which all the wildlife experts say is a very bad thing. So this year they opened a season on white tail does, and made the buck season a bit longer too I think. Anyway I have never been to so many deer/car MVAs, or heard of so many being hit. Interesting how the balance got shifted by the fires. We used to see mule deer from time to time, now we see Whites daily, and in the hay fields we have care of we can't count them at dawn.

Sorry for your loss. I know the joys of watching them grow up and feel like part of the family. I hope the lone fawn does well.