Just a rant...I must be getting old.

[llrumsey]

Was on our way down town today and went by the animal check station, there was a pickup truck parked in the drive way with a trailer, on the trailer was the most beautiful elk I have ever seen, dead of course.

I just breaks my heart to think that just a few hours ago this magnificant animal was free, probably eatting his breakfast. And now he's just laying on a trailer.

I know people hunt, some for the actual meat others for the antlers, but this is just my feelings.

I dont want to start a riot with the hunters, each person to their own lives. I just had to get this off my chest.

Right now any kind of death or abuse just about breaks me apart, recently we had a 8 year old girl murdered just a few miles from our town, I've had a number of animals die for no apparent reason and now it's hunting season here and I will miss the deer and wild turkeys coming into the pasture next door.

I guess I must be getting old..................

 

[kidcody]

I agree its sad

 

[Biblioberta]

You are not getting old...you have a heart that is filled with compassion for all living things!!! I agree with you.

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I agree. It is very sad to see. I went to the grocery store one day and I saw a dead deer on top of a car. I felt so bad.

 

[rancher hicks]

Here in the Syracuse, NY area we are over run with deer. They're fate is to die of that wasting disease or starvation or the coyotes. That's why I don't mind hunters as long as they're going to eat them.

There has been talk of just shooting and culling them which would be ok by me if they're going into the freezer.

However I will say this. The size of an elk or deer you see today are nothing near the size or as grand as they once were. Smaller due to shorter life span I expect. I learned this on a visit to the Biltmore in Ashville, NC.

I do however wish hunters would leave the biggest and best. While there may be a size limit perhaps there should be a over this size restriction too.

Still I understand how the OP feels,

Rancher

 

[welsummerchicks]

I agree with the OP. While deer are a nuisance species in some areas, elk have a far smaller range than they once did, and they are not ranging over the entire area available and appropriate for them. I'd rather they were relocated rather than shot.

My SO have been talking about a 'new kind of hunting'. Hunters would draw lots to get chances for trips on 'conservation' hunting. Darting animals for relocation, vaccination, birth control, hoof timming, medical treatment.

Evidently this wasting disease of deer could be stopped, but it would require a concentrated effort.

 

[babyblue2]

I agree that there needs to be more care and management health wise. Around where I live there are areas that are no hunting allowed but still pretty wild. We are over run with deer. Massive wild herds of 50+ are not uncommon. Walking outside and seeing 15 deer in the yard is normal. They have special trucks just to go pick up road kill in a 5 mile area. This town is a major tourist attraction in the summer, but in the winter if a handful of licenses were given to proven hunters the numbers could be safely taken down. The deer either starve, or destroy local crops to the point where farmers fence in or quit farming, or are fed by really stupid locals.

 

[PitterPaws]

Yes, I know it is very sad

And I live in a family of Hunters!!

First time my Brother asked me if I wanted to see his deer he killed, I said " Um No!"

Unfortunately it is a nessesary evil in this day and age, with so many deer and the diseases they can and do get,

we have wolves here in wisconsin too but they don't cull them fast enough.

Every time I go into town I always see dead deer along side the road that were hit by cars.

It's so sad!

 

[llrumsey]

We have alot of deer in this area also, in fact just last night I was sitting under the porch and watching 2 does and their babies under an apple tree.

And I agree that the deer do get the wasting dieses (?), which is worse than being killed, but this was and elk and I have never seen an elk in this area, I know it came from one of the big farm lands with lots of pasture were I never go, but still it bothers me that there are so few in this area.

Deer seem to multiply faster and I feel that is someone has to track the deer, using a bow and skill then the animal has a chance, but I've seen feeders and tree strands and I feel that is so lazy. Go out give the animal a chance, look for, work for and appreciate the kill more.

And for some reason I cant explain I feel different about the deer vs the elk.

Thanks for letting air my personal feels, I do feel better.

 

[debilorrah]

I can tell you that I would be thrilled to bag an elk right about now. We are pretty much living without any meat to speak of, except what is really, really cheap. That would feed us for months.