I made the discovery on the way home from town Sunday. At 12:58 p.m. The remains were not there an hour before, when I passed in the other direction. As you might imagine, my first glimpse was a bit of a surprise. Of course the first thing I did was stop and take a picture. A picture to send to Farmer H, who was on the other side of the state, having lunch with The Veteran. That's a story for another time, and possibly place.
Anyhoo... I knew that Farmer H would appreciate a good corpse picture. You, perhaps, not so much. That's why I keep typing, trying to fill space, so that the picture will be below the fold. Or below the bottom of your screen, so you can choose whether to scroll down and see it. C'mon. You know you want to!
Anyhoo... let the record show that of course it's not a human corpse. It's not even a WHOLE corpse. It's mainly ears and vertebrae and ribs. See? Just some parts still hooked together. Not even all that gory.
It's about time now. I could tell right away that it had once been a beautiful doe-eyed...um...doe. A deer. A female deer. Like the two we saw several hours ago (Monday evening), on the back blacktop road, returning from an early supper with Genius. Which is also another story.
Anyhoo... get yourself ready for viewing. IF you so choose. But first, let's finish out our little tale. Farmer H said it IS deer season, for hunters with bows. So this was probably a legal kill. And even if it wasn't, the killer made such good use of harvesting maximum meatage that I can't fault him if he's a gun poacher. There are plenty of deer, and hunting season is to cull the herds so that they won't starve to death over the winter. I think it's more humane, a quick bullet or arrow, than wasting away without enough food.
The purple paint on the telephone pole means NO TRESPASSING. No hunting, no harvesting trees, no berry-picking, no gathering firewood, no mining large rocks to sell as a retirement nest egg. Sure, it's possible the hunter/killer trespassed and threw the carcass down there to make a statement that he's a ne'er-do-well. But more likely, the deer was killed and butchered elsewhere, and a large animal dragged the remains here.The creek is on the other side of T-Hoe. The deer come down to drink. Sometimes hunters toss carcasses into the creek, though usually down at the main low water bridge.
I tried for a closeup, but it's out of focus.
I'm not at all squeamish, never have been and have even worked in the butcher room of the meat department of a supermarket, where they cut up the carcasses and package the parts for sale. So you go ahead and post as many carcasses or parts thereof as you like. I'm not a fan of hunting-for-sport, but hunting-for-meat is a different matter and I like a hunter who is careful to take as much as he can, rather than to just leave it to rot. I know a lot of people think killing "Bambi" is a terrible thing, but where do they think their meat comes from? Mass production and killing of real animals, that's where. I'll probably get emails from vegans now....
ReplyDeleteAnd you know it's a female because there was no evidence of where the antlers used to be?
ReplyDeleteExcuse my ignorance. I am familiar with the remains raccoons, squirrels (mowed down by me) and opossums. Deer?
Deer is something I avoid mostly when I'm with people who hunt and are fond of making venison sausage.
River,
ReplyDeleteThose wasteful hunters (usually poachers) are despicable. One time Farmer H found a deer carcass that only had the tenderloins cut out, and the rest left to rot.
I wonder how many vegans carry leather purses and wear leather shoes, and don't think twice about killing insects and rodents that get into their homes.
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Sioux,
Yes, no antlers. Oh my gosh! I have a raccoon/possum story coming up on my other blog.
That sausage can be delicious. And jerky, too. When Farmer H used to share in the deer harvest with his hunting buddies (due to getting them a deal on a meat processing saw thingy from his company), I made a tasty BBQ crock pot dish. A fellow faculty member at Steelville came into the teacher lunchroom after I'd explained what it was, at our Thanksgiving potluck. She ate some on a roll, and declared how tasty it was. Then someone else mentioned that it was deer, and she was mad! Not my fault she came in late and didn't ask. I made the disclosure!