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Location: UK
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 7,369
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Originally Posted by
moetmum
Do any of you ever ask yourself what happens to the deer your dogs chase? I work at the largest country park in Hampshire and I get heartily sick of the goings on. We had two young ladies out for a stroll in the country and ended up carrying back to the centre a fawn, which somebodies dog had killed, the mother of the fawn was distraught, or have you ever had to disentangle a deer that has hung itself on a fence in its panic or aborted its fawn?, or is entangled in brambles? Who picks up the vets bills that have to be paid? not any of you. You probably go home and don't give it a second thought. If your dog isn't reliable keep it on a lead. We regularly lose deer to irresponsible dog owners.
Maybe country parks do pick up the vets bills...But when we found a poor deer hanging upside down by it's leg and carried it a few miles to even get it to our truck, no body wanted to know, we ended up taking it to the vets, and they barely wanted to know, it was really horrible...that deer hung on in there fighting to live and put up with being carried by us, all that way and then the journey to the vets for nothing, all they did, was tell us it wouldn't make it - ballsed up the injection to put it to sleep, flick it right in the eye to see if was fading but it wouldn't, as it was a fighter, and re attempted putting it to sleep - 3 times! All while my o.h stood there holding it, not believing what was going on - It was horrible - it would have been kinder to slit it's throat when we found the poor little thing. That's what we told them and they seemed shocked and disturbed by that - apparently this was far more humane [my ass] I cried at least 3 days about it as I had looked right into her eyes and willed her to live just for this.
You might have the facilities to get vet treatment for injured animals but don't act like there are vets having struggling to foot the bill everywhere. A lady we know took an injured deer to the vets also - they told her it could survive but they wouldn't be able to carry out treatment - unless she wanted to pay! Thankfully this lady isn't short of a bob or two and she paid all of it's treatment - just a regular member of public [who has dogs that also sometimes chase deer!] Another time - we were stupid enough to take a crow that we found injured to the vets - they said to us - you don't expect us to treat that do you? They reluctantly took it off us - I think it was obvious they were going to do nothing and let it die. I sometimes don't think they honestly give a sh!t about animals unless there is an owner with good insurance. The voluntary organizations yes but not regular vets or even the rspca etc.
Yes my dogs do chase deer - So I guess I'm mean but with a big heart? However when it is baby season they get called back straight away...My dogs have never killed deer. But deer get hit by cars and they get caught up in the fencing no matter what, or maybe they get shot by farmers because they are seen as a pest when they run across the crops - then we have the population control because we are a weird country that protects ground nesting birds as though they were gold yet we are afraid of anything with a remote prey instinct - so we need guns instead ...
Nothing is done to make the fencing a better design - the fencing we have here is the kind which has large squares and I know for a fact the deer get caught in that purely by just jumping over it minus any chase, yet there is no effort to change it for something different. And do we have a suitable speed limit on the road here where it passes through heavily deer populated areas? Like hell, it's not slow enough and people ignore it anyway - people do 90mph on their motorcycles as it's a nice straight bit of road. What about when farmers let their fencing get in a state? Guess what - when I'm out on a walk I re straighten any bits of fencing I see badly buckled over as I know that is a deer trap waiting to happen.
I don't think enough people care and to be honest once you've taken away the threat of people, most dogs are the least of deer's worries. I just try to keep things in perspective. I love deer but dogs in general certainly are not the biggest threat to them.