[Fleecewife]

A couple of days ago, a neighbour was having his silage cut - full tilt and everyone working as hard as they could, machinery at full speed.  Mr F noticed a young Roe doe amongst the grass in one of our areas of newly planted trees, but thought not much more about it.
Yesterday we were in that area watering trees when a huge noisy lorry surged up the road and the deer erupted out of the grass coming straight towards us, then veered to the fence between the trees and our pasture.  She leapt the fence but we could clearly see that a back foot was dangling.  She limped away and couldn't find a way out of our field.
What to do? We don't have a rifle, there was no way to catch her to get her to a vet.  We phoned a friend with a rifle, and known to be a good shot.  He arrived pretty quickly and got the deer straight away.  He then did a pm to see what had happened to her. The back foot was severed totally and just hanging by some skin, but it was the internal injuries which shocked us.  Clearly infection had got in the open fracture and her insides were black with sepsis and necrosis.  We assumed at first that she had been hit by a car, but there were no external injuries except the foot, then it clicked that the injury was almost certainly caused by the forage harvester cutter blades.  The field they were cutting adjoins an area of plantation where many deer live and feed in the grass field.  Had we not seen the dangling foot that poor animal would have continued to suffer excruciating pain from the tissue necrosis for another day or so until she died. I'm glad we noticed, but oh dear it was all very sad.  Such a beautiful young creature accidentally caught up in Man's activities.

[HappyHippy]

Aww that is horrible FW (and one of those things that you can't un-see  ) but at least you can take some comfort from the fact that you took action and stopped her suffering any longer 

[SallyintNorth]

 

[Lesley Silvester]

Horrible for you. 
We had a red stag disembowel itself on out gates when we lived in Scotland. We saw him on our drive dragging his entrails in the dust. Our neighbour had a shotgun so a quick call and the stag was out of it's misery and the gate was heightened with copper piping above the spikes that had got him. The deer still came in but at least they lived to tell the tale.

[Fleecewife]

Horrible for you. 
We had a red stag disembowel itself on out gates when we lived in Scotland. We saw him on our drive dragging his entrails in the dust. Our neighbour had a shotgun so a quick call and the stag was out of it's misery and the gate was heightened with copper piping above the spikes that had got him. The deer still came in but at least they lived to tell the tale.

Oh my goodness how awful .  It's blank disbelief for a second then action, and a gun's the only way

[oor wullie]

That's hard to have to see.

This spring a lot of deer starved to death.  2 or 3 found within a few hundred meters of the house but I suspect many more die hidden in the trees or a ditch never to be found.
I've heard reports of some areas of the hills stinking for miles as corpses rot after melting a few weeks ago.

[Fleecewife]

Ugh I know that smell from when Myxi was rife in Norfolk, and from driving through Cumbria during F&M. Why are the deer starving? Are there just too many?  We maybe do need some predators. We have to have a balance but that's hard to achieve with all the other pressures.

[oor wullie]

There are much more deer than the land can support (numbers have increased hugely over the last decades) and this winter was harder than the previous few.

  We were frozen continously for 8 or 9 weeks from end Dec to early March then had another week of snow in early May so there was a pretty long period with no grass growth.

[Fleecewife]

It certainly was a long hard winter, down here in southern Scotland too.  I didn't hear of deer dying round here but then they are perhaps not in such high concentrations as you have.

[oor wullie]

I suspect that it is deliberate that next to nothing has been said in public about deer starvation as it's not something that reflects well on those who manage the deer.

There are discussions about extending the open seasons to allow for more opportunities to control numbers however the sporting landowners and gamekeepers are against this for supposed welfare reasons.  Admitting in public that thousands of deer have starved somewhat undermines their arguement and so it simply isn't talked about.

[Fleecewife]

I wonder if 'Landward' would be interested in running an investigation?  There was a brief piece a short while ago about someone culling a few deer selectively, with the implication that that was enough (I think that was landward).  Perhaps they were being tentative to gauge reaction.  There seems to be a reluctance to talk about culling of deer, because of public resistance, but it sounds as if the least cruel way to prevent such overpopulation is culling quite a lot of deer. I personally don't like the shooting estates, probably because of the elitism and enjoyment involved, but an accurate shot is the surest and most humane way to thin out a population of deer (or rats, or rabbits) that I can think of, and perhaps for someone to earn a living from it isn't so bad, as long as only good shots get to do the shooting.
Do you fancy dropping a hint to Landward [member=25668]oor wullie[/member] 

[Lesley Silvester]

Horrible for you. 
We had a red stag disembowel itself on out gates when we lived in Scotland. We saw him on our drive dragging his entrails in the dust. Our neighbour had a shotgun so a quick call and the stag was out of it's misery and the gate was heightened with copper piping above the spikes that had got him. The deer still came in but at least they lived to tell the tale.

Oh my goodness how awful .  It's blank disbelief for a second then action, and a gun's the only way

Indeed. It hung in our shed for a few days before our neighbour butchered it and it was shared out between us. We ate better for a few weeks than we had all year.