So today, I thought I would share with all of you a little piece of where I live. You'll either find this completely humorous or grotesque depending on where you live and how you were raised.
On Friday night I was driving home (it was already dark) on one of the main roads, and there was a deer that somebody hit. The deer was still alive, in the middle of the road, but it couldn't move. Whoever had hit it was nowhere in sight, so I assume they just kept driving. So I did the responsible thing. I pulled over with my flashers on and my headlights on the deer so that anyone who came after me could see me, and the deer, and hopefully wouldn't hit the poor thing.
So here I am, a young woman on the phone with a female State Trooper telling her the situation so they could come and take care of the deer. I'm certainly not going to go out and do the humane thing, as much as I would like to; I don't carry a knife, and I'm not brave enough to go out in the dark alone to pull off that feat anyway.
While I'm on the phone, two trucks pulled up almost simultaneously behind me. One of the trucks boxed me in between himself and the deer so I couldn't get out if I wanted to. It wasn't clear whether the two men who got out of the trucks knew each other or not; but it doesn't really matter anyway. The men walked over to the deer, without a glance at my car to see if I was OK (how could they have known that I wasn't the one who had hit the deer in the first place?). The second man kicks the deer in the head. Right, because that's really going to put an end to the poor thing's suffering.
They immediately started arguing over who was going to take the deer. That's right; it's deer season, and everybody wants venison. The argument escalated, pretty pointlessly since the deer was a doe, and a moderately sized one at that. The first guy, with the red truck blocking me in, punches the second guy who parked on the opposite side of the road, effectively winning the argument. The "winner" walks to his truck, takes out a rifle, and shoots the deer. This is completely illegal, by the way.
By this time, the "loser" has his second wind and continues arguing with the "winner" while he drags the deer to the back of his tailgate-less truck and throws it in the back. They both drove away.
I'd like to point out that at this point, I was very grateful that the inside lights in my car were off, that these guys were not interested in me, and that my doors were locked. I also wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't bothered me because they assumed I was calling "my man" (or whoever in a truck) to get him to come get the deer. Welcome to Upstate New York.
That is absolute horrible. While visiting Princeton college at NJ, I was walking around town by myself waiting for my father to pick me up. Suddenly, I saw a dead deer lying in the middle of the sidewalk. I too guessed that it was hit by a car. I didn't know what to do since it was already dead. Now, I am afraid of animals to death! No matter how scared I am, I wouldn't want to see these animals dead, you know. It took me 15 minutes to have the courage to walk about the poor deer. No one did anything. They acted like that thing has always been there. I would've call the police or something but I didn't have a cell phone. I still wonder what happened to it.
I'm glad you're safe. lol I would've went out of the car, which is a stupid thing to do in the dark. The guy just took the deer? Horrible. If the deer was attacking him, then it's a different story. But this is just plain...mean.
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I don't really think it's mean to take the deer for food. I don't know how much of it is actually good after being hit by a car. I do think that it is completely insane that they two men actually got into a physical fight over the deer.
It's probably a good thing that the man shot the deer or else it would've suffered.
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"Is it true, said Candide, that people in Paris are always laughing?"
-Voltaire
Here in Wyoming we have tons of deer and people are hitting them constantly. We even have roadkill cookbooks.
It is awful because it does a $1000 damage to the car minimum. Last week not far from my house two teenagers had a head-on collision and were both killed because one crossed into the on-coming lane trying to dodge a deer, The deer are a plague.
I am sitting on my couch in my family room watching TV and typing on my laptop. As i type, three small bucks are crossing through my backyard and if my rifle were handy I could shoot one without actually getting off my butt. But I'd have to clean up the mess and I already have enough venison in the freezer. I can only eat so much chili and that is about the only thing most of the meat is good for. (Elk is a whole different matter and is better than beef).
Our town just opened an archery season in town so people can shoot deer with bows inside city limits. Hopefully that will thin them out a bit. Also hopefully nobody will get shot with an arrow.
Don't you keep a gun in the car to humanely dispatch wounded deer? I never go anywhere without one. Almost everybody I know has a car gun tucked up underneath the steering column or under the seat or in the trunk. You never know when you'll need to shoot something or just get the urge to do some "plinking" for the fun of it.
What a horrible thing to have happen, for MANY reasons:
1.) I find it strange that they came as you were talking to the police about it. Makes me wonder if they had scanners listening for announcements like yours.
2.) How petty and stupid to get in a fight over a deer.
3.) Most of that meat is likely useless as who knows WHEN that deer was hit, and deer meat from a car accident is generally not fit for anything other than pet feed... (the car hitting it damages the meat and makes it pretty bad for your system to handle, bacteria and such.) So they were basically argueing over what would become pet food.
4.) he KICKED the deer? I'm a Conservative and have no problem with people hunting. Hunting helps reduce the population, based on figures by the state wildlife commission (or DNR or whatever each state calls it.), as to what the environment can feed that year. And, as a meat eater... yum! All of that said, animal cruelty really sets off a hot button with me. Animals don't deserve to be put in pain like that. I've hit a deer and thankfully the deer died instantly.
5.) You were in SERIOUS danger. I'm thankful that neither of them thought to involve you.
Well... in NYS you can't remove a deer from the road without the State Police. It's also illegal to not report an accident. So I was doing the right thing, and obeying the law by reporting the accident (even if the deer-hitter had left the scene). I doubt they had scanners because they pulled up literally 30 seconds after I got on the phone with the Trooper.
I know the deer had literally JUST been hit - because it was still alive and in the middle of the lane. I bet $20 it was the car in front of me - that I couldn't see - and because they couldn't see anybody and there was little damage to their car they just drove off.
There are some really disgusting, uneducated people that live up here. Not everybody, but some. Kicking the deer was just ridiculous and depressing.
I am also extremely thankful they showed no interest in me. People who will pull out rifles in the dark on a highway to shoot does without tags are scary.
Unless it's Elmer Fudd, then it's made adorable by his accent and hunting cap. Nice adventure you had there, glad you're alright! What part of upstate New York is this exactly?
It happened around Potsdam, where I go to college. Most of my family is from this area, so I'm familiar with the culture, but this definitely was the icing on the cake that goes way beyond the norm.
Lots of Elmer Fudds up here... but these guys were characters of their own account.
Yeah, you have to be careful.
Hunters are generally good folk, but some of them are really dangerous, for one of two reasons:
1.) They were bullies in high school and never grew up, so they seek to assert dominance anywhere they can.
or
2.) They only pull out their rifle to sight it in before hunting and maybe fire off 30 rounds a year. They don't have NEAR the experience to be truely safe (Which is why you hear about hunting 'accidents' each year.)
Of course, if they're taking deer off a road illegally, I'd bet that they aren't legal hunters and don't even respect the laws at all.
Like I said earlier, deer meat is normally not good for human consumption if it has been hit by a car (likely why they have the rule about not being allowed to take it)... so they were likely fighting over what would become pet food.
Gross... but so true.
This sounds all too familiary for me. I live in Michigan and I hear about people hitting deer all the time. I've never had an experience like that but I pictured it happening while I was reading this and it hit a little too close to home.
Fortunately, my family as moved closer to the city so we don't hear about this as much as I would if we lived up north.
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"Is it true, said Candide, that people in Paris are always laughing?"
-Voltaire